Engineering seats nearly halved

A whopping 75,000-odd engineering seats have been slashed in JNTU Hyderabad affiliated colleges since the formation of Telangana and the number would be more if the reduction in colleges affiliated to Osmania University is also accounted for though the number in OU is negligible.

From 1,63,570 engineering seats in 2014-15, the number has come down to 87,786 this year in JNTUH colleges even as 101 colleges closed down during the same period. The decline has been steady over the last three academic years, more so after the Government ruthlessly crushed down colleges that did not adhere to the mandatory norms prescribed by the AICTE.

From 306 colleges in 2013-14 academic year, the number was educed to 288 the next year and further reduced to 208 and 199 in the following years, finally stopping at 187 colleges this year. Presumably, most of these colleges functioned with less faculty and far less students than their stipulated intake, while a few colleges just depended on the fee reimbursement scheme.

“However, the new Telangana Government did not support their violations following with a series of inspections and warnings to adhere to norms. College managements were expecting support from the government as they extended whole-hearted support to the Telangana agitation, but the Government had other ideas,” said an official involved in the inspections over the last three years.

Reduction is not just confined to engineering seats but also M.Tech courses, Pharmacy, MBA and MCA courses. Seat reduction is directly related to the colleges closed down in the last four years and also reduction in the intake capacity of the existing colleges. A lot of colleges preferred to reduce the number of seats, unable to match teacher-student ratio.

The M.Tech course was the worst sufferer with the seats reduced to 4,686 from 36,210 in 2014-15. It was a known fact that most M.Tech courses were being taken by people working in the industry without attending the classes and appearing for the exams with the active support of college managements.

With introduction of bio-metric attendance and linking Aadhaar details of candidates with admissions there was no other option for them. Moreover, non-availability of required faculty for the courses forced the colleges to shut down and biometric attendance of the faculty was the last nail.

Pharmacy too lost its sheen over the years and seats were reduced by nearly 50% and just 6,918 seats are available this year. MBA courses too faced similar issues with seats reduced to 10,800 from 32,565 seats in 2014-15.