Chennai: With no takers for postgraduate engineering courses in Tamil Nadu, as many as 47 engineering colleges have closed 92 programmes from this academic year (2018-19).
Along with MBA and MCA, many of these colleges closed down the ME programmes including power systems and engineering, communication systems and applied electronics and VLSI design.
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has released the list of courses and institutions which were given approval for progressive closure from this academic year.
“For the past few years, enrollment in PG courses has come down drastically. We have kept our ME power electronics course alive without a student for the last two years. But, it is not possible to offer these courses without a minimum strength,” a principal from one of the colleges, which had closed down PG programmes, told this paper.
The sanctioned strength for a PG course is 18. “Only if we have a minimum strength of 15 we can run a course. We need at least three faculty members to run a course and it is not feasible to run the courses with one or two students,” he said.
Some principals are expecting more closure in the next academic year since there are more than 50 per cent of seats are vacant in a majority of the courses. “We will not be surprised if more colleges offer to close their PG and UG programmes in the coming academic year,” another principal added.
As per the AICTE’s statistics, 19 engineering colleges have closed 42 UG programmes including mechanical and computer science engineering courses.
Professors lamented the lack of planning while approving and starting new courses. “AICTE and Engineering Colleges need to be aware whether there will be demand for certain courses. Many courses which were closed do not have the scope,” they said.
Educational consultant D. Nedunchezhiyan pointed out the lack of job opportunities for PG students as one of the main reasons for students not joining in PG courses. “We need to enhance our quality to prepare the students for various jobs including prestigious institutions like Isro. If we are able to get good jobs then only we can attract the students,” he said.
E. Balagurusamy, former Vice-Chancellor of Anna University said the closure of PG courses is a worrying trend as it could affect the manpower in teaching and research.
“All bright students in UG courses are selected in the campus recruitments. The remaining students are joining in PG programmes and even after finishing their master’s degree they could not get good salaries. So, students are not interested in joining ME and M.Tech courses. If the trend continues, there would be a big vacuum for research and teaching,” he said.
He also suggested a scholarship scheme to attract bright students to PG courses. “Both the AICTE and state government should take immediate steps like awarding scholarship and job guarantee to attract students. They can also increase the intake in tier 1 colleges which have good infrastructure and faculty members.”
“We need to have a proper manpower planning at PG level for next 10 years. Based on the study we need to come out with incentives and scholarships for PG students. They are important for doing engineering research and teaching,” he added.
