800 Engineering Colleges to close
2017-09-03According to a recent report published in the Times of India, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) wants to close nearly 800 engineering colleges across the country. AICTE is the statutory body and a national-level council for technical education, under Department of Higher Education, MHRD. It is responsible for planning and coordinated development of the technical education and management education system in India. The AICTE accredits graduate and postgraduate programs at Indian institutions.
The report quoting the AICTE chairman A D Sahasrabudhe mentions that the body has already approved progressive closing of 400 colleges across India. Progressive closure means the institute cannot admit students to the first year in that academic year, for which progressive closure is granted; however, the existing students will continue.
The states where private engineering colleges opted for progressive closure are as follows:
1. Telangana: 64
2. U.P.: 47
3. Maharashtra: 59
4. Andhra Pradesh: 29
5. Rajasthan: 30
6. Tamil Nadu & Haryana: 31
7. Gujarat: 29
8. Karnataka & M.P.: 21
9. Punjab: 19
As per the AICTE norms, institutes that lack proper infrastructure and report less than 30% intake for five consequtive years will have to shut down.
MyExamPlan's take:
We believe that this correction was long overdue. In the last ten years India has added engineering colleges at an unprecedented rate. 65% of the engineering colleges in India today are under private managemnent. Most of these colleges opened during the IT boom between 2004 - 2012 to capitalize on the demand in IT. However, with changes in fundamentals, these colleges today are finding it hard to fill even 30% of their seats. According to us these changes are :
- Oversuppy of engineers: India now has an over-supply of fresh undergraduate engineers. The industry no longer has space to accomodate all of the graduating students. The demand-supply gap also has resulted in depressed wages at entry levels.
- Change in market dynamics: The engineering dream was primarlily driven by the lure of IT & ITES jobs. Since 2014, the sector has been in a consolidation mode due to tectonic shifts in technology - The focus of IT now being more on efficiency (more IT with less people).
- Quantity over quality: In order to fill their seats, the colleges turned a blind eye towards the quality of students admitted to their programs. Quantity was the focus. Add to it, lack of good quality faculty who could teach. All of these led to mass production of poor quality of fresh engineering graduates that nobody wanted.
- Outdated curriculum: Most of what is being taught in engineering colleges today are out of whack with the real world demands and needs. Consequently, the graduates do not have the tools and skillsets required by organizations. Moreover, the challenging business climate today no longer allows organizations to spend money on training - a cost that they do not want to incur today.
This natural churn (i.e., closure of unviable colleges) is likely to continue for a few more years until the skills offered by fresh engineering graduates is not aligned with the needs of the industry.