The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has given approval to set up 43 engineering colleges throughout the country, consisting of one by a Central University in Puducherry. The proposal has been passed for this year as per officials.
The previous year the BVR Reddy committee had set up the technical education regulator for exploring new ways to haul engineering education in the country. It had also recommended a moratorium on developing more engineering colleges in the country till 2024.
As per the AICTE data, the 43 proposals for setting up new engineering colleges have been approved out of which 26 proposals have been put forward by the state governments.
“No institution that does not fall under the exceptions made by the Reddy committee has been given approval this year. In fact, the major chunk of them are from state governments for starting a college in aspirational districts having no engineering colleges so far or to offer highly skill-based courses such as Artificial Intelligence and Data Science,” said Sahasrabudhe.
“The permission to start new private colleges has been granted only on the basis of two parameters. Firstly, to the proposals by philanthropic or educational foundations fulfilling the Reddy committee guidelines, and secondly, to those who proposed to start such colleges in aspirational districts,” added Sahasrabudhe.
With this increment in the numbers of colleges, engineering seats this year is also bound to increase. Engineering colleges in India recorded a 10-year-low in the number of seats being provided for the coming generations.
Furthermore, the AICTE has even approved eighty new management and four architecture and planning institutes.