State seeks AICTE approval for 52 new technical institutes

The state government has recommended 52 new professional institutes in the state for approval from the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) this year.

The state government has recommended 52 new professional institutes in the state for approval from the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) this year.

HT Image

The colleges, which include management, pharmacy, engineering and integrated campuses, if approved ,will accommodate 11,158 more students.

“We received 98 applications of which we have shortlisted 52. The list of approved institutes should be out by the end of the month,” said Rajesh Tope, minister of higher and technical education. Last year, the AICTE had approved 116 new colleges in the state out of 240 proposals.

This year applications across the country have reduced. While AICTE has tightened its norms, experts said that the market for technical education has saturated. Every year, seats go vacant especially in new colleges that have not yet established a reputation. Last year, 9,000 management seats and 22,000 engineering seats remained vacant after the admission process was done. To fill up vacancies in B-schools, the state government allowed students who had not taken the entrance test to take admission. There are already 1.14 lakh engineering and 31,000 management seats in the state.

To further enhance technical education among existing institutes the state has initiated the second phase of Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme. The phase will have two main components: one to enhance infrastructure in technical institutes and the second to upgrade postgraduate and doctoral research in colleges. Around 31 institutions had applied for the first component and eight have been short-listed. For the second component, 15 institutes applied and ten have been short-listed.