5.62 lakh engineering seats cut since 2019; no new college till 2022: Dharmendra Pradhan

NEW DELHI: Over 5.62 lakh seats have been cut from engineering colleges since 2019, education minister Dharmendra Pradhan told Lok Sabha on Monday, July 26. Of these, the technical education regulator All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) cancelled 98,476 over the sessions -- 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22. The rest of the seats were “surrendered” by the institutions themselves.

In consequence, the AICTE has imposed a moratorium on new institutions. The education ministry’s reply in Parliament says: “In view of the large number of vacant seats in various programs and the likely future demand, ...AICTE will not accept fresh applications for setting up new engineering institutions till 2022.”

The education minister said that, however, AICTE has given approval to open new engineering colleges in emerging areas and also permitted state governments to introduce BTech degrees in “highly employable vocational disciplines”.

In 2020, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had decided not to consider any fresh application for setting up new engineering colleges in the country till 2022.

Since 2019, as many as 5,62,886 engineering seats have been cancelled or surrendered.

Dharmendra Pradhan also detailed the measure taken by AICTE to improve quality in engineering education and the employability rate of engineering graduates from the existing 25-

28 percent. Pradhan told the parliament that AICTE has introduced exam reforms, mandatory internship, induction program for students, has revised the model curriculum and started training teachers.

Recently, AICTE had reduced 80,000 seats from BTech, MBA institutes.

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