AICTE received 611 new Engg colleges applications

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi has got a total 611 applications for seeking approval for opening new undergraduate technical institutions across the country. Approval of these new colleges decision will be taken in the first week of March, said AICTE Chairman S S Mantha.

In the academic year 2012-13 most of the engineering colleges seats were left vacant across the country, but opening of the new technical institutions seems to be no end for applications for permission.

SS Mantha participated in a seminar organized by Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Kakinada on redesigning engineering curriculum in the context of outcome-based education on Sunday. He later told to the media that accreditation for new engineering colleges would be strictly on the basis of outcome-based education system henceforth and that alone would lead to quality improvement.

He further said, there should be improvement in quality of students, teachers, infrastructure and everything that implement on the engineering education system. There should be a industry interface with excellent placements.

Many of the engineering colleges not having basic infrastructure and faculty got closed down. "Let the best and fittest survive," He added.

SS Mantha said there should be industry mapping and we can reap the demographic dividend only if we make our engineering graduates employable. Many studies have found that only 25% of our engineering graduate are employable and the rest are getting in other sections for low salaries. Therefore, there is a lot of underemployment,"

The fees for engineering courses was being deducted by state-level committees in different states and there is no national level fee committee functions right now.

"I feel we should create some new financial model to make engineering education system affordable to larger sections of the students in India. Perhaps, we should take a relook at the dual fee system, which was in vogue in the past, with the rider that it should be linked to the economic status of the student's family," Mantha said.