BHUBANESWAR: All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) chairman Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe’s revelation that 800 engineering colleges across the county would be shut down for low admission and poor quality education has set the alarm bell ringing among the technical institutes of the State.
Reeling under high vacancy for the last five years and more, many of these colleges are staring at the dreaded clause of AICTE which says institutions having courses where the admission is less than 30 per cent (pc) of the approved intake for last five years and continue for the current academic year shall be closed next year with the approval of the Council.The 800 colleges that Sahasrabudhe recently mentioned were based on the intake for the last five years. This year’s admission rate has not been any better and yet to be uploaded by colleges individually in the State.
But going by this year’s admission rate, it comes as no assurance. Out of the 42,000 seats in 85 private colleges of the State, barely about 15,000 seats have been filled leaving a massive vacancy of 27,000.
If sources in the Odisha JEE body are anything to go by, a bulk of the colleges may have recorded admission in less than 50 seats this time around. The assessment of the last five years would yield quite a few colleges which fail to meet the AICTE norms to stay afloat.
“There are chances that many of these colleges would be shut down the courses because it is not viable with such low admission rates. How do they appoint faculty members to teach a few dozen students,” said an OJEE insider. But what happens to the students who have already taken admission? While it is difficult for the educational entrepreneurs who have invested in setting up the colleges, it is more distressing for the students and their parents too.
However, the Odisha Private Engineering Colleges Association (OPECA) said it has already requested the AICTE chief to impose the closure norms with prospective effect, not with retrospective effect.
“We welcome the decision of AICTE in assessing the non-performing colleges but it should be used with prospective effect. The Association has already written to Sahasrabudhe to make an assessment for next three years and then shut the colleges down that fail to attract students,” general secretary Binod Dash said.
He says the colleges which have recorded below 30 pc intake in the particular courses for the last five years would automatically close down the programmes.
“About students who have already admitted in such colleges and courses, they can be transferred to another college. Such transfers have taken place in the past and can be done with approval of the State Government,” Dash said.