Aspirational districts get an exemption from new engg college moratorium

NEW DELHI: Aspirational districts that have no access to technical education and philanthropic organisations holding credible records in the education sector will be exempted from the extended two-year moratorium on setting up of new engineering colleges across the country, officials said.

“It has been decided that only aspirational districts that have no engineering colleges or polytechnics will be exempted from the ban. There are still 30-40 remote districts in the country where there are no engineering colleges and the people there cannot afford to go to big cities for higher education. If the concerned state governments want to start engineering colleges in such districts, then they will be permitted. But we will ask them to focus on job-oriented programmes,” All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) chairperson Anil Sahasrabuddh said.

“Besides, if any philanthropic organisation or society, having a proven track record particularly in the field of education, would want to start a technical education institution, then they will be provided the approval with some restrictions,” he added.

Sahasrabuddh also said that the council has accepted the recommendation to continue with the ban on setting up new colleges, till 2024, by a committee that was set up to look for ways to overhaul engineering education in the country in 2018.

In 2019, the committee, headed by BVR Mohan Reddy, chairman of Iit-hyderabad, had advised the government to put a moratorium on granting approvals to new engineering colleges for two years, starting 2020. Following a fresh review, the committee in its report to the education ministry in December last year suggested that the ban be extended by another two years.