KOCHI: Introducing programmes just because it was the latest trend has cost many engineering colleges in the state dear. Around 16 undergraduate and 19 postgraduate programmes were discontinued by various engineering and polytechnic colleges in Kerala during 2017-18. According to Biju Scaria, placement officer, Mar Athanasius College of Engineering, poor enrollment has resulted in colleges discontinuing courses.
"To keep up with the trend, many colleges launch programmes that are said to be in vogue during that particular period of time. However, they do so without doing proper research," he said. For the first few batches, they might get enough number of students. "But once it becomes clear that the programmes have no standing in the job market, students give them a miss. And once students stop enrolling for the programmes, colleges find it financially unviable to continue with the courses. They are then forced to close such programmes," he said.
Some of the programmes that have been shut down are PG in control systems, signal processing, thermal science and bio-processing. Even popular branches like computer science and electronics and electrical engineering have few takers these days. The main reason pointed out is the increase in the number of colleges.
Biju said sometimes some programmes are shut down after the college decides to just conduct the main course. "Every programme has branches. Many universities have decided to do away with the branches and offer only the main programme. So, this too might have led to the shutting down of the programmes," he said.