After 3 years, AICTE lifts moratorium on new engineering colleges

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on Thursday lifted the moratorium on setting up of new engineering colleges, three years after the prohibition came into force in view of low enrolment in engineering and diploma programmes

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on Thursday lifted the moratorium on setting up of new engineering colleges, three years after the prohibition came into force in view of low enrolment in engineering and diploma programmes.

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Releasing its approval process handbook for 2023-24, the council said “the moratorium clauses have been relaxed”, and any interested non-profit society or trust or company can now establish institutions in the country in engineering and technology.

The new applicants, however, will have to apply for at least “three core engineering courses”. Preference will be given to those colleges that will offer courses in multi-disciplinary areas in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the council said in the handbook.

“The moratorium has been lifted. The move will boost core engineering courses, including civil, mechanical, electrical, and electronic,” AICTE member secretary Rajive Kumar said.

In 2018, AICTE constituted a committee, headed by BVR Mohan Reddy, chairman of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, to overhaul engineering education in the country and recommend short and medium term prospective plans. The panel was set up after the council observed that seats were lying vacant in several engineering colleges.

A year later, the Reddy committee advised the government to put a moratorium on granting approvals to new engineering colleges for two years, starting 2020, and “review” the creation of new capacity every two years after that.

Following a fresh review, the committee, in its report to the education ministry in December 2021, suggested that the ban be extended by another two years. It, however, provided exemptions to aspirational districts having no access to technical education, and philanthropic organisations existing for more than 25 years and running no other educational institutes; and any industry with a minimum annual turnover of ₹5,000 crore.

In December last year, the Union education ministry informed Parliament that at least 33% of the sanctioned seats in engineering colleges across the country remained vacant in the academic year 2021-22.

Kumar said the council, last year, constituted another committee, headed by the director of IIT-Bhubaneswar, to analyse the situation.

“The committee noted the percentage of admission in core engineering areas, and after that, it recommended lifting the moratorium and encouraging engineering institutes to start courses in emerging technologies,” he said.

According to the AICTE handbook, the applicant can apply for one or more programmes. “However, in the case of Engineering and Technology, at least three core branches and one emerging area course shall be opted,” it said.

The AICTE has also relaxed norms for collaboration of engineering colleges with foreign institutions this year.

Previously, the top 500 institutions in global rankings by Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) were permitted to collaborate with Indian institutions positioned within 100 National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings. However, the norm has been relaxed to include the top 1,000 institutions in global rankings.

Meanwhile, there has been no change in the eligibility criteria for students for admissions to engineering courses this year.