Sharp Decline in Admissions Force 122 Private Engineering Institutes to Shut Down

According to All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), a staggering number of 122 private unaided engineering colleges in the country are going for progressive closure this year and will be shutting down as soon as the existing batches graduate. This news comes at the time when the HRD Ministry is promulgating STEM education.

From 2018, the regulatory body will close down technical colleges that have been observing seat occupancy of less than 30% over the past five years.

Last year, a total of 29 lakh seats in various engineering colleges observed only 15 lakh enrollments. The private engineering colleges are going out of business due to a sharp drop in admissions. They would not be conducting any new admissions from this year onwards.

AICTE is now focusing on cutting down the number of engineering institutions owing to the poor demand and deteriorating quality of education. Since 2012, 23 engineering colleges have come to a halt in Andhra Pradesh which is the largest number followed by Telangana (21) and Haryana (18).

List of Unaided Private Colleges Opting for Progressive Closure

The list comprises engineering colleges in several states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Rajasthan, that wound up during the 2016-17 session.

Source: AICTE

These private engineering colleges stated the diminishing number of admissions made it non-viable for them to run colleges.

The situation was not always this adverse.

The Boom in Enrollments Followed by the Present Bust

The IT boom in the mid-1990s made several Indian states jump on the engineering bandwagon.

There was an increase of nearly 30% in engineering intake in 2008-09 over the previous year.

As a matter of fact, 106 out of 144 engineering colleges offering undergraduate courses in Haryana, which is 74% of the total, were founded only in the last decade. With more than 700 new engineering institutes being approved, 41 of these in Haryana, it was the highest in a single year since 2001.

Experts hold the lax AICTE approvals and the period when AICTE was accused of unrestrained corruption, responsible for this unsystematic mushrooming of institutes.

Then came a sudden reduction in college admissions.

With the great economic recession of 2008 engulfing complete world economy especially the IT companies in the US and Europe, the job market drastically shrunk. India too bore the brunt of it. The first slump in enrollments was felt in 2011 when multiple prominent companies kept away from visiting the colleges for job placements.

In Haryana, the number of students went from 29,277 five years ago to 17,601 in 2016. With a meagre number of 15,2015 admissions against 58,551 seats this year, the state tops the list of vacant seats in the country.

Presently, its 17 technical institutes are on the AICTE’s radar for low admissions and are on the verge of forced closures next year. One such college is Bharat Institute of Technology (BIT) which was founded in 2008 in Sonepat.

Bachan Singh, deputy director and registrar at BIT which was founded in 2008, said, “Many of these colleges were set up in the Sonepat district making it Haryana’s private education hub. Its closeness to Delhi implied better employment opportunities for the graduates.”

Last year, 89 percent of its 420 BTech seats were unoccupied and less than half of the 180 final year students were placed via campus recruitment. From the 65% placement rate about six years ago, it has fallen down to a disappointing 25%. Currently, the college is surviving on earnings of the pharmacy college run by its parent company, Bharat Group of Institutions.

Numerous private engineering colleges like BIT are trapped in a vicious cycle due to abysmally low student intake and substandard placements have confined institutes.

Is Shutting Down of Such Engineering Colleges Good in the Long Run?

Studies revealed that more than 80 percent of engineering graduates in the country are not suitable for employment and nearly 8 lakh engineering graduates are seeking low-grade means of employment. This can be attributed to the indiscriminate expansion of private engineering institutes and the deplorable quality of education provided by them.

The news of AICTE shutting down such colleges may sound dismal, but it is certainly not alarming. It should be regarded as a corrective measure.

Earlier, students took admissions in private engineering colleges when they were unable to get into IITs and NITs. The scenario is now changing with the upcoming prestigious government institutes such as IITs and NITs. The government is assiduously working towards providing the best quality education and infrastructure.

Students are now realizing the cons of studying in low standard private engineering colleges. There is a positive shift among students as they are opting for quality over a degree.

The shutting down of private engineering colleges is not at all an indicator of the popularity of engineering in the country. This year, over 12 lakh students appeared in the JEE Main 2017. The steady number of engineering aspirants is a resounding affirmation of the growing interest in the career.