BE colleges to surrender seats

Chennai: As over 80,000 seats went vacant in over 500 private engineering colleges in the state this year, several top private engineering colleges have decided to reduce, about 500 to 900 seats, their intake of seats in branches including Computer Science, Informa­tion Technology, Mechanical and Biotechnology. Academi­cians expect that Tamil Nadu will lose about 5,000 seats in the process of seat surrender by private colleges.

"A couple of years ago, we increased our intake in branches like Computer Science and Information Technology multi-fold, as students chased IT companies, and last year, after seeing the craze for Mechanical Engineering, we increased it from 60 to 120.

But at the end of counselling, we found that most seats in these branches went vacant," said the chairman of one of the top private engineering colleges of the state. He also pointed out that they had decided to surrender 500 seats in branches including Computer Science, Information Technology and Biotechnology as it had become difficult for them to fill the seats in these branches.

It is not this college alone, several other private engineering colleges in the state have taken a similar decision. Jayaprakash A. Gandhi, an eminent academician who visits several engineering colleges for student counselling, noted that several college managements had discussed with him the cut in intake, to manage their operational expenses. "Some colleges have offloaded seats in Computer Science, Information Technology, Mechanical and have sought an increase in Civil Engineering as the sector sees a boom now," he said.

Asked about the trend, Anna University vice-chancellor, Prof M. Rajaram, said college managements had not come up with an official communication to the university about the reduce in intake, but that he had learnt that some colleges had plans to surrender their seats. "We have to wait till the approval process starts this year to see how many colleges come forward to surrender their seats," he said.

Next: Operating costs deter new colleges plan

Operating costs deter new colleges plan

Chennai: With the confusion of who would regulate engineering colleges in the country that ended with the University Grants Commission (UGC) winning the battle, numerous trusts/colleges which aspired to start new engineering colleges in the state have put their proposal on hold for a year, citing rise in operation costs.

“The cost of running a college has begun to go up; besides, we have several seats going vacant every year and the present confusion between the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the UGC has added fuel to the fire. So, we want to wait and watch this year,” said an administrator of a top private engineering college which wanted to start another new college.

Another academician was of the opinion that several colleges which have come up for sale have no takers and that took the issue to the next level. “People have now come to the conclusion that running a school is better than starting an engineering college as the former is now economically viable.

In the past, running an engineering college was not as expensive as it has become now. Recurring costs have gone up with the hike in the prices of petroleum products, groceries, vegetables, so­phisticated equipment. The implementation of the sixth pay commission payscale for faculty has made things worse,” an academician who wanted to start a new engineering college on the city outskirts said.

Anna University sources pointed out that they would initiate their process to approve new colleges and extend approval to existing colleges soon after getting the new guidelines from the UGC. “We expect the guidelines to come at any point of time and are fully geared to implement it,” sources said.