Friday, May 11, 2018

Fewer engg. colleges in the counselling race 

R. Sujatha 

 
Chennai, May 11, 2018 00:00 IST



Across India, 239 institutes have been approved for total closure; number of engineering colleges in T.N. down by 20 this year

The number of colleges that have sought approval from the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) for programmes in engineering, architecture, management and hotel management and catering has come down.

In each of these disciplines, scores of colleges have not renewed their approval and the number of seats has also fallen significantly.

According to data accessed by The Hindu , this year 32,62,262 seats are available in various courses as against 35,52,199 seats last year.

Across the country, 239 institutions have been approved for total closure.

AICTE chairman Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, who was in the city earlier this week, said data specific to Tamil Nadu was being compiled. But according to the information provided by the Minister for Higher Education K.P. Anbalagan in April, this academic year 567 engineering colleges will admit students as against 587 last year.

In 2017-18, of the 2,67,651 seats only 1,52,704 seats were filled, he said.

Progressive closure

A look at last year’s data on the AICTE website shows that it had approved requests from 94 institutions in Tamil Nadu for progressive closure of courses, including diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate engineering subjects.

Some institutions have sought closure of several programmes.

Some of these programmes include traditionally popular ones such as civil engineering, automobile engineering, (UG) electronics and communication (diploma) and even computer science engineering. In many colleges the master’s programme in computer application has been closed.

New trend

There has been a sudden surge of interest in pharmacy courses. This academic year the AICTE has given approval to 1,055 institutes to offer diploma courses and 1,204 institutes degree courses. As many as 338 more institutes will offer diploma courses in pharmacy and 212 additional institutes will offer degree courses as compared to last year.

T. Ilango, Registrar of the Tamil Nadu Pharmacy Council, said with better job opportunities for pharmacy graduates the students are opting out of engineering. The number of private colleges offering pharmacy courses had increased from 47 to 65 in two years, he said.

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