The All India Council for Technical Education has approved 25 new engineering colleges in the state for the coming year, said its Member secretary Dr K P Issac. He was talking on the sidelines of the Graduation Day ceremony at Ranganathan Engineering College on Saturday.
“Approval process for the year are over and more than 100 engineering colleges are approved this year across the country. In Tamil Nadu, 25 new colleges have got approval and three will be closed as per their own request,” he said. He observed that the number of new engineering colleges being established had been dwindling since a saturation level had been reached in the country.
“Last year, 300 new colleges got approval all over the country and this year it is around hundred. The trend is going down since we have reached a saturation in case of engineering institutions. Engineering students should take care of their linguistic skills and every institution should have a language laboratory with enough facilities,” he maintained.
Earlier, in his address to new graduates, he emphasised the need for being skillful in order to be employable. “The industry is complaining of not getting people with good skills to work for them. You should impart skills rather than being bookish,” he said.
Talking about the change in priority for the engineering colleges, he said many preferred cultural activities as the first priority than others. “The order of preference should be quality of faculty, learning process between teachers and students, management support, quality admission, alumni relations, infrastructure, collaboration with other institutions, sports and cultural activities. But, unfortunately, it goes in the reverse order,” he said.
He also urged the graduates to be a team player. “Individually, you may be brilliant but if you cannot work in a team your performance will go below par. So, inculcate the skills to work in a team,” he said.