TOI
COIMBATORE: A women's engineering college in Namakkal has not seen a new admission for the past two years. The college's management has been using faculty from their other institutions to teach third and fourth year students, because it is economically unviable to recruit staff for just 350 students. This is the situation in almost 50 engineering colleges in the state.
Alarm bells have been getting louder with engineering colleges shutting shop or in the process of closure. More than 30 engineering colleges are likely to either shut down or convert themselves into arts colleges or schools over the next two to three years. Educational consultants say 32 out of the 539 engineering colleges in the state saw less than 100 admissions in 2014.
AICTE sources admitted that 17 technical institutions have applied for closure this year. "This is not new, even last year we had applications from some colleges which wanted to shut down," said a Coimbatore-based AICTE member. "A few more might follow," he said. A college needs to get approval from Anna University and an no objection certificate from the state government for AICTE to sanction its closure. "The colleges would have to function until their current batches complete their courses," said the official.
"Many grade three engineering colleges are trying to convert themselves into schools or Arts and Science Colleges, because they see a better demand there," said Chennai-based educationist J P Gandhi. "AICTE rules say that institutions should have a staff strength based on its sanctioned strength and not existing strength. But, they can't meet salaries with just 100 students," he said.
More awareness regarding career options in other fields like science, law, humanities and arts besides college rankings and better placements are cited as reasons for colleges shutting shop. "The declining demand in engineering education is not a new phenomenon and with emerging alternate careers, the problem is bound to get worse," said S Vaidhyasubramaniam, Professor of Management & Adjunct Professor of Law. "The remaining students have realized that only the top 50 colleges get placements, so they want only a grade I or grade II College," said Gandhi. "The pass percentage of grade III colleges is less than 50%," he said.
"There are at least three colleges in Namakkal, one in Salem and another in Sangagiri which did not admit any students last year," said Moorthy Selvakumar, an Erode-based educational consultant. "All these colleges might have applied for a formal closure this year," he said.
COIMBATORE: A women's engineering college in Namakkal has not seen a new admission for the past two years. The college's management has been using faculty from their other institutions to teach third and fourth year students, because it is economically unviable to recruit staff for just 350 students. This is the situation in almost 50 engineering colleges in the state.
Alarm bells have been getting louder with engineering colleges shutting shop or in the process of closure. More than 30 engineering colleges are likely to either shut down or convert themselves into arts colleges or schools over the next two to three years. Educational consultants say 32 out of the 539 engineering colleges in the state saw less than 100 admissions in 2014.
AICTE sources admitted that 17 technical institutions have applied for closure this year. "This is not new, even last year we had applications from some colleges which wanted to shut down," said a Coimbatore-based AICTE member. "A few more might follow," he said. A college needs to get approval from Anna University and an no objection certificate from the state government for AICTE to sanction its closure. "The colleges would have to function until their current batches complete their courses," said the official.
More awareness regarding career options in other fields like science, law, humanities and arts besides college rankings and better placements are cited as reasons for colleges shutting shop. "The declining demand in engineering education is not a new phenomenon and with emerging alternate careers, the problem is bound to get worse," said S Vaidhyasubramaniam, Professor of Management & Adjunct Professor of Law. "The remaining students have realized that only the top 50 colleges get placements, so they want only a grade I or grade II College," said Gandhi. "The pass percentage of grade III colleges is less than 50%," he said.
"We did not get any new admissions in 2013, and the previous batches also had less than 250 students," said a former lecturer at the Namakkal engineering college, seeking anonymity. "In the 2012 intake, we had just 98 students," he said. "So, now the college functions with just five former engineering college students teaching the third and fourth year students," he added. The women's engineering college belongs to a group that runs two more engineering colleges, besides a medical college. "Their other colleges too see an admission rate of only 30% to 40%. Some of the staff teach at the women's college," said the lecturer.
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