‘No more pharma colleges till 2022’

BENGALURU: More than a year ago, a committee headed by BVR Mohan Reddy noticed that 50 per cent of seats in engineering colleges are vacant. It recommended that no new engineering colleges be accepted until 2022. In addition to that, Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), said that permission for setting up new pharmaceutical colleges has also been stopped. 

During the previous academic year, the AICTE noticed 900 new pharmaceutical colleges were set up in just one year. As a precautionary measure, Sahasrabudhe told TNIE no new pharma colleges will be set up until 2022. “The Supreme Court has given a temporary stay and asked us to receive applications. Whether to give approval or not depends on final judgment of apex court,” he added.

However, new government engineering colleges will be given permission in aspirational districts if there is no government engineering college.There are 272 aspirational districts, said Sahasrabudhe, adding that just a few of these districts are left without any government engineering college.

Many states have opposed single entrance test for engineering aspirants : AICTE Chairman
Bengaluru: Even as dialogues are being held with stakeholders across the country about the benefits of a single entrance test for engineering aspirants, many states have opposed the move, Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of AICTE, said on Wednesday. He was talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the ‘International Conclave on Learning Ecosystem’ organised by IFIM Business School, here.

A common entrance examination, would be the NEET (which is for medical aspirants) equivalent for engineering students. One of the reasons for states to oppose the move is that their syllabus may not be on par with that required for the entrance test. These states must revise their curriculum, Sahasrabudhe said. A common entrance test, which perhaps can be introduced thrice a year (to get the best score, akin to IELTS), will expand the options of students.

Minimum fee yet to be prescribed for engg colleges
While the upper limit for fees for various courses in different institutes is prescribed, the fee regulatory committee is yet to specify the lower limit, said Anil Sahasrabudhe, AICTE chairman. By this, educational institutes also tend to suffer, he added, with extremely low fee limit that many states prescribe on their own, infrastructure and faculty salaries get affected as institutes have to adhere to a teacher-student ratio. “So, we cannot go below the cost that needs to be covered by institutions nor charge exorbitantly as education is a not-for-profit endeavour. There should be a band in which the fee should lie,” he said.