AICTE move to close 200 Colleges in 2018-19

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is all set to shut down nearly 200 'substandard' engineering colleges over the period of next 12 months.

In the last four years, the number of seats in engineering colleges has been reduced by 3.1 lakh.

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is all set to shut down nearly 200 ‘substandard’ engineering colleges over the period of next 12 months. With the closure of these colleges, the number of engineering seats will be brought down by 80,000 this eyar. In the last four years, the number of seats in engineering colleges has been reduced by 3.1 lakh. While this is not the only alarming figure, the actual enrolment in engineering colleges has come down by 1.86 lakh since 2012-13. There had been a decline in the number of engineering seats offered to students since 2016. AICTE states that annually, there is a fall of approximately 75,000 engineering seats.

According to the order passed by AICTE, the colleges termed as “substandard” will not be able to enroll new students. The institutes will cease to exist only when its current batch graduates. While talking about the closure of 200 colleges, Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairperson, AICTE said, “This year too there will be round 80,000 seats less. Around 200 colleges have applied for closure as they were having very low admissions in the recent past.”

While the condition of several colleges is so bad that they had to apply for closure, certain elite colleges had witnessed an increase in its enrollment. These colleges include the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the National Institutes of Technology (NITs).