Seats go vacant but tech schools boom

The growth rate of engineering colleges in India appears undeterred by the huge seat vacancies witnessed last year.

One hundred new tech institutes recently received approval from technical education regulator AICTE. By the end of this month, another 200 are expected to be cleared to offer courses from the 2011-12 academic session.

The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) had received applications for 1,062 proposed institutions that sought to start courses in engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture from this year.

At its June 10 meeting, the council approved 175 institutions, including 100 engineering colleges, and asked the rest to correct their shortcomings.

The council will meet again in the last week of June to see if these 887 institutions have taken corrective steps. Some 200 proposed engineering institutions that narrowly fell short of the norms are expected to receive approval.

Close to 300 engineering colleges, accounting for about 75,000 seats, were approved last year. “Nearly 300 new engineering colleges are likely to be approved this year too,” AICTE chairperson S.S. Manth said.

“The approval process is going on and the picture will become clear by the end of this month.”

Manth said the proposed institutions that were denied approval at the June 10 meeting were found to be deficient in aspects such as area, infrastructure, faculty, books and laboratory facilities. However, about 300 of them, including 200 proposed engineering colleges, had minor shortcomings relating to equipment and books that could easily be corrected.

The number of engineering colleges has risen four-fold in the country in the past six years — up from about 1,500 in 2005-06 to 6,043 in 2010-11. The increased number of colleges has led to huge seat vacancies too.

Last year, nearly two lakh BTech seats — almost 15 per cent of the total — were not filled. (See chart)

The situation was worst in Orissa, with over 40 per cent seats left vacant. The figure was 30-odd per cent in Bengal and Karnataka, and less than 10 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.

“It is not that students have developed cold feet about joining engineering courses,” Mantha said.

“The vacancies have mostly been seen in certain branches like production, instrumentation and construction engineering. But there is a huge demand for seats in civil and mechanical engineering, computer science and electronics.”

Sometimes, it’s the location that deters students: engineering colleges in small towns and rural areas have witnessed huge vacancies. Most of the proposed institutions that have applied for approval this year are in the metros and state capitals, Mantha said.

Another reason for the high vacancy rate could be the high fees charged by private engineering colleges. Many would-be engineers from poorer families seek admission only to government colleges, which number just 250 among the 6,000 colleges offering BTech.

The government engineering colleges charge lower tuition fees, ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 per semester, compared with Rs 40,000-50,000 in private colleges. Besides, the private colleges often charge additional fees — such as institute development fee and Internet fee — that may come to Rs 20,000-30,000 per semester.

“There is always 10 to 15 per cent vacancy of seats. This should not be a reason for denying approval to new institutions. You have to plan ahead keeping in mind the education needs of future generations,” Mantha said.