BENGALURU: With the demand for engineering courses going down in the state, some of its streams which fails to attract students and contribute more to vacant seats is being planned to be closed.
Considering the least number of admissions to some of the streams, the Higher Education Department has decided to request the All India Council for Higher Education (AICTE) to shut down, disaffiliate or ban the streams which have failed to attract students.
Data from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belagavi, shows that 12 streams have been getting the least number of admissions for three years -- 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17. According to university officials, there is no demand for those subjects in the job market. This list of 12 streams includes aerospace engineering, automation and robotics engineering, ceramics and cement technology, environmental engineering, instrumentation technology, manufacture science and engineering, and mining technology. “The problem with these streams is that very few colleges offer these courses and some have started when the market was in boom in that particular area. Now, the trend has changed and it is obvious that the subject is not in demand,” said a principal of a private engineering college in the city.
According to principals of engineering colleges and officials of VTU, other short-term courses are available now and students prefer to join them. “Environmental engineering is now offered at under-graduate courses; even four-year integrated MSc courses available and there are also diploma and certificate courses,” said an official.
An official of the Higher Education Department said, “This streams reflect on the overall intake and vacant seats. If we retain such streams, it will be just for namesake and even if a single student gets admission, colleges cannot decline them. So it has been decided to write to AICTE to close down such streams.”