KOCHI: Engineering is going the MBA way - a casualty of the law of diminishing marginal utility. In layman’s terms, people just got sick of it! It naturally triggered a downward spiral with the number of engineering aspirants dwindling year-on-year. But unfazed by the bleak prospect, the managements of self-financing colleges in the state are turning the crisis into an opportunity. Their wonder drug : Diploma courses.
The managements recently got a clearance from the All India council of Technical Education (AICTE), to use their existing land and infrastructure for running short-term diploma and vocational certificate courses along with the existing engineering degree courses. Each college has an average of 15 to 30 acres of surplus land.
The managements are mulling utilisation of this space to run the diploma courses. “For the past few years, the managements have been scrambling to fill the seats,” said Jory Mathai, president of the Kerala Self-Financing Engineering College managements.
“A clearance was sought for launching the diploma courses and to pare down courses for which there were no takers. The ACTE approved both our demands. “Electronics tops the list of courses which have lost their sheen. Most colleges have been running two batches for the course. And hence, many managements have sought the AICTE’s permission to curtail the number of batches and seats.”
Slimming down batches will not affect those already pursuing engineering in these colleges, as the change will be introduced only from the next academic year. Most colleges are planning to reduce the number of seats to 30, he said. The association has no plans to venture into arts and science courses, though traditional degree courses have recently made a comeback as a preferred choice for students, he said.