HYDERABAD: Engineering colleges are once again trying their luck to secure affiliation for the academic year 2015-16. With previous inspections by the JNTU-Hyderabad leaving them high and dry, managements themselves are volunteering to reduce student in-take lest they lose out on affiliation.
The cut in admissions would be proportionate to the available infrastructure and academic staff — a norm which both the State government and the All India Technical Education (AICTE) are insisting on.
The managements have already communicated their decision to the government and urged it not to repeat last year’s drastic action. The State government had then ‘dis-affiliated’ 175 engineering colleges for violating the norms. As of today, there are around 280 engineering colleges in the State.
“We have impressed upon the government that the managements of the engineering colleges are willing to reduce admissions, and are making efforts to improve both academic staff and infrastructure facilities,” Telangana Engineering and Professional College Managements’ Association chairman N Gowtham Rao said.
The move is in keeping with the government’s intention to reduce the number of engineering seats in the State. Whether it will cut down the number of seats in particular colleges, thereby, bringing down the overall seats available in the State or completely strip some colleges of their affiliation is not yet clear.
According to the government estimates, there are 1.70 lakh engineering seats in the State. However, only 1.10 lakh students qualify to appear for EAMCET and of them, only 75,000 study engineering. The private engineering colleges are now anxious as inspections by the JNTU are yet to take off. Hence, the urgency to meet the norms set by AICTE and the government.