Colleges to move SC over AICTE’s new courses rule

CHENNAI: Private engineering colleges have decided to challenge a recent rule issued by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in the Supreme Court. The council recently said only colleges that managed to secure at least 50 per cent admissions last year will be eligible to apply for new courses for 2021-22.

All educational institutions in the country were closed due to the lockdown in March last year. Enrollment into engineering colleges, which was already on the decline, took a more severe hit. This led to many smaller and rural engineering colleges having less than 50 per cent admissions. Now, these colleges will not be able to apply for approval of new courses according to regulations stipulated in AICTE’s approval process handbook 2021-22. 

Speaking to Express, TD Easwaramoorthy, the secretary of Federation of Self-Financed Technical Institutions said that only one out of five colleges managed to secure over 50 per cent admissions last year. “At least 80 per cent of the colleges could not get over 50 per cent admissions. This means that only 800-900 colleges out of over 4,300 colleges in India will be eligible to apply for a new course,” he said.

Easwaramoorthy added the only way to boost admissions in engineering colleges with poor enrollment is to introduce upcoming courses like Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, which are popular among industries.

“This will lead to a natural death of other colleges that are trying hard to boost admissions,” rued Easwaramoorthy. Another member of the association, on condition of anonymity said that engineering colleges that are doing well need not be concerned about the regulation, but the rule may set other colleges on a downward spiral.

The approval process handbook 2021-22, which was released last week, has already been criticised by many for making mathematics and physics optional for engineering courses. While many private institutions welcomed the decision as it increased the chances of more enrollment, the AICTE issued a clarification stating that universities will be able to decide which courses are mandatory for which engineering stream.