THE FLIP-FLOP ON BANNING NEW INSTITUTES
This year, the apex body barred 167 institutes from conducting admissions against 75 institutes in 2017-18 and 62 institutes in 2016-17.
“This is a routine procedure conducted by the governing body annually, as institutes approach us to renew their sta- In January 2018, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) allowed six states in the country, including Maharashtra, to deny permission to new engineering institutes for the academic year 2018-19. Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana are the other five states where not a tus of approval and affiliation. Over the years, we have become strict and the institutes are pulled up even for the slightest slip-up,” said an AICTE official.
Over the past few years, engineering institutes have been grappling with the problem of single new engineering institute was allowed to be established
By July 2018, AICTE officials were of the opinion that a blanket ban on new institutes was not the solution for the crisis.
“Official figures from various [state] governments show that only some branches of engineering were not in demand. While private institutes were 7 Source: AICTE
declining demand for seats leading to a higher vacancy.
In December 2018, a specially constituted committee comprising educationists and industry experts suggested a blanket ban on new institutes and asked the existing institutes to better their performance. facing seat vacancy, governmentrun engineering institutes were doing well, so we decided to lift the ban for 2019-20,” said an official from AICTE
But a specially constituted committee, which included educationists and industry experts, has once again recommended a ban on new institutes from the year 2020. 1 5 6 2 4 3 8
“The ban will be implemented from 2020, keeping in mind the applications for new institutes that we have already received for 2019-20. Next year onwards, our focus will be on bettering the education quality at the existing institutes to attract more candidates,” the official added.