300 Tech colleges on verge of shut down

Hyderabad: Several engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh are up for closure or put on sale for the next academic year thanks to drastic fall in admissions to their engineering courses.

According to a latest report from All India Institute of Technical Education (AICTE), as many as 300 colleges may apply for closure by the end of this academic year.

Already 40 engineering colleges, located in and around the city, have sought the government's permission to shut down. These colleges have had only five to six admissions for the past three years. Last year, as many as 56 engineering colleges from the State had applied for closure.

The report has revealed that only 1,50,000 seats are filled out of 3,40,000 available seats in all 730 engineering colleges. A steep decrease in admissions is leading many colleges to merge themselves or close the academic activities.

This year, 13 out of the 609 private engineering colleges had zero admissions. Over 250 colleges reported less than 100 admissions, indicating a sharp decline in demand among the students.

According to sources in the AICTE, the prime reason for closure of these colleges was lack of viability in running the engineering courses due to dwindling demand from students.

'There are virtually no takers for seats in these colleges, largely due to poor infrastructure facilities and lack of quality staff. Moreover, there are no job opportunities for students who pass out courses from these colleges,' an official said.

Most of these engineering colleges that have applied for closure are minority colleges and those from rural areas, where the intake of students is very low.

'The fault lies with the policy of the successive State governments which have given permission for these colleges to come up in every revenue division and block.

While those colleges nearer to the cities are able to record good number of admissions, those in the interior areas have failed to attract students. There is a dearth of quality staff in these colleges,' the official said.

Indiscriminate sanction of colleges in private sector, poor infrastructure, faculty, laboratory and other facilities and falling standards in the new colleges are among the other factors that contributed to the declining demand.

Adding to this was the government's flip-flop over the fee reimbursement policy.'Each college has an intake of at least 250 seats in the first year. The colleges can run the courses if at least 75 per cent of the seats are filled up.

Because of poor admission process, many engineering could not sustain and they are left with no option but to wind up the first year course. This year, they might not go in for fresh admissions at all, as a result of which they would be left with only third year and final year batches.

After a couple of years, they might have to wind up,' a source in the higher education council said. President, Junior College Lecturers Association P Madhusudhan Reddy said, 'many popular colleges in the State are literally on the verge of closure and some already put on sale.'

He said that according to AICTE and UGC norms there must be 1:3:15 ratios of senior professor, assistant professor and student in every college. The private college managements are blaming on the policies of State government for this situation.

Member of the private engineering college management association, R Krishna Rao said the government should not have sanctioned large number of seats for engineering.

Principal Deccan Engineering College Mohammed Abdul Malik said, 'There are several factors which affected admissions and the major one is political uncertainty caused by Telangana issue.'