Engineering colleges reduce intake by 30,000 this year

Chennai: With 40 per cent of the seats going vacant in engineering colleges in the country, about 30,000 seats have been reduced this year with colleges minimising their intake in some courses where they find it difficult to attract more students, said Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

When college managements find it difficult to get students for a specific course they approach AICTE either to reduce their existing intake or close the branch, he said.

“This is the phenomenon we find everywhere in the country. When college managements come to us for reducing intake or closure of the course, we follow procedures and rules laid down in the approval process handbook,” he said.

It is also likely that AICTE might look at a reducing 40 per cent seats in undergraduate engineering stream across the country in the next few years. If an institution wants to reduce its intake/close a course need to submit, no objection certificate (NOC) from the state government and the affiliating university and resolution of the tr-ust seeking reduction in intake, to AICTE.

Commenting on the reduce in intake, Sastra University’s dean (planning & development) Prof. S. Vaidhyasubamaniam said that voluntary surrender of seats by colleges and the regulatory reduction by AICTE are both consequences of a mindless expansion by the Council during the last decade.