With a steady stream of engineering colleges applying for closure since 2015-16 and a significant reduction in capacity in others, the total number of seats in engineering institutions in India has fallen to the lowest in a decade.
With a steady stream of engineering colleges applying for closure since 2015-16 and a significant reduction in capacity in others, the total number of seats in engineering institutions in India has fallen to the lowest in a decade.
Latest data from All India Council for Technical Education shows that the number of engineering seats at undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma level has come down to 23.28 lakh which is the lowest in at least 10 years. The shortfall in seats this year is estimated at 1.46 lakh due to the closure of the institute and reduction in admission capacity.
Despite the significant decline, engineering still accounts for 80 percent of the total seats in technical education in the country (composed of architecture, management, hotel management and pharmacy, among others).
500 Engineering Institutes Have Closed:
At its peak, in 2014-15, there were about 32 lakh seats in engineering education across all AICTE-approved institutions. The decline is being attributed to consolidation that began seven years ago, with colleges closing down due to low demand. Since then, around 410 engineering schools have ceased operations. At least 50 engineering institutes have closed every year since 2015-16, except last year, when the Covid-induced disruption was first noticed. This year 64 have got AICTE approval for closure.
The technical education regulator’s approval for setting up new engineering institutes is at a five-year low. In 2019, AICTE announced a two-year moratorium on new institutes starting from 2020-21. This was done on the recommendation of a government committee headed by IIT-Hyderabad chairman BVR Mohan Reddy.
Decline In Demand As Fuel Shortage:
At its peak, in 2014-15, there were about 32 lakh engineering seats in AICTE-approved institutions. Since then, the lack of demand has led to the closure of nearly 400 engineering schools. Nevertheless, they account for 80% of the seats in the technical space (including architecture, management, etc.)
AICTE has approved 55 new institutes for the academic year 2025-26. Chairman Anil Sahasrabuddhe told The Indian Express that these approvals are for setting up engineering colleges in backward districts, requests that were already in the pipeline, and in the case of state governments wanting to start a new institution. Three years before the moratorium came into force, the regulator has approved 144, 157 and 154 new institutions in 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively.
Checking The “Devaluation Degree”:
In December 2017, The Indian Express published the findings of its three-month-long investigation, “Devaluation Degrees”, which found that in 2016-17, no one accounted Or not the taker for 51 per cent of the 15.5 lakh undergraduate seats in 3,291 engineering colleges.
The investigation found clear gaps in regulation, including alleged corruption; A vicious cycle of poor infrastructure, laboratories and faculty; non-existent relationship with industry; and the lack of a technological ecosystem to nurture the classroom. All this, it found, is attributable to the low employability of graduates.
A few weeks later, AICTE announced its decision to slash admissions in poorly-admission courses by half, starting from the academic year 2018-19. In 2019, it announced a two-year moratorium on new institutions.
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