Amaravati: Engineering education may be hit severely as several private engineering institutions are queuing to shut colleges. Some of them even applied to Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE) and AICTE for closure. Around 100 engineering colleges are ready for closure. Meanwhile, APSCHE also recommended AICTE not to give permission to new engineering colleges in the State.
Highlights:
- Around 100 private engineering colleges face threat of closure
- Six colleges applied for permission to closure
- APSCHE recommends AICTE not to give permission to new colleges
State, which is a hub for engineering education, is now facing severe crisis as students have not been enrolling in engineering courses in recent years and thousands of seats in private engineering colleges are lying vacant. There are 320 engineering colleges in the state, of them 15 are government colleges.
Though there are 1,45,254 qualified students, only 74,999 attended to the recent first phase counselling. Of them around 74,194 students have chosen multiple options and 69,116 seats allotted.
“Many students are giving priority to national engineering institutions and reputed colleges in other States but not interested in joining private colleges, which is leading to seats being vacant,” sources said.
A senior officer from APSCHE said several private engineering colleges failed to get minimum number of students in recent years. “Around 100 private engineering have above 50 students and 50 colleges have below 50 students,” he said.
Professor Narasimha Rao Pemmasani, vice-chairman of APSCHE told The Hans India that a decision was taken by Higher education stopping permission to the new engineering colleges due to non-filling of seats in private colleges.
“Engineering colleges that do not have minimum number of students would not be allowed to run as it is not possible to maintain standards,” he added.
Narasima Rao said there was a growing craze for basic science courses as job opportunities significantly increased for general graduate courses such as B.Sc., B.A., B.com courses. “Corporate companies are showing interest to recruit general graduates. New syllabus was introduced 2014-15 academic year in degree courses and around 10 specialisations were introduced in each the graduate courses.
Students need not to take any special training to get job in corporate companies. Corporate colleges also satisfied with the changes in the curriculum,” he added.
[“Source-thehansindia”]
