Permission denied to new engineering courses and colleges to start in India in 2014.

‘Supply is more than demand'- the same is the scenario with the engineering colleges in India. Hence All India Council for Technical Education has decided not to grant permission to new professional technical colleges to start from 2014. This decision is applicable for all states where the Council denies the fresh proposals for setting up new colleges.

Thus all the trusts, companies or societies those plan to start new engineering course or college this year, have to stop and wait till next year as the UGC wants to have a 1 year halt on affiliation for new colleges. Plus, UGC have also made decision to not increase the number of present engineering institutions.

AICTE has arrived at this decision after observing the present status of technical education in India. The scene is not as promising as thousands of engineering seats are lying vacant even after the admission process is over in colleges.

In states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu where maximum number of engineering colleges are set-up, have requested AICTE to not grant permission to new proposals as the number of vacant seats in the technical institutions have increased by leaps and bound. According to a survey there are total 3,393 engineering colleges in India with 14.86 lakh seats. After admission closure around 15-20 percent seats were left unfilled.

Based on the data collection of total number of engineering colleges versus the total number of admissions been given, AICTE has arrived at the decision to give 1 year halt to starting of new technical colleges and courses and see the situation thereafter.

This announcement came on August 7, 2013, where the letter was issued to all universities. There has been step decline in the number of engineering colleges coming up from 43% in 2008-09 to just 3% in 2012-13. Number of factors is held responsible for this situation, like:

• Profit earning aim of many business people.
• Feeble regulatory system.
• Unprofessional code of conduct by accreditation board to offer permission to new colleges.
• Increasing number of affiliation to colleges by the universities.
• Accreditation board's grant to increase number of seats in engineering colleges.

All affiliated universities have received notification from UGC to not accept or process application for technical education from any college for the academic year 2014-15. This decision brings a ray of hope for the existing engineering colleges in India. As there would be no new engineering college, the students have to take admission in existing ones. Thus the number of vacant seats would automatically come down.

Due to lack of students, many engineering colleges have put their college for sale as they cannot meet the c ost of running the institution. Also AICTE now receives less number of applications for starting new technical college. According to market survey, many engineering course pass-outs from past years are still on hunt for a suitable job which is indeed a sad thing. As an outcome, students are having more inclination towards Arts and Commerce stream.