BE colleges cross 500

Hyderabad, July 5: The number of new engineering colleges being set up in the state is increasing like a T20 scorecard. The All India Council of Technical Education approved 57 colleges on Wednesday, another 23 on Friday and by Saturday it stood at 119.Another 30 colleges are expected to be approved by July 16, the day from which Eamcet counselling for admissions into engineering courses will begin.

This will result in the sanctioning of 150 new engineering colleges in a year, which is a record of sorts. While it took a decade to set up 300 colleges, the number shot up to 500 in just one year. Currently, there are 338 engineering colleges with a total intake capacity of 1.21 lakh seats. With the addition of another 150 colleges, the intake will be 1.57 lakh.

The indiscriminate sanctioning of engineering colleges has led to drop in the standards prompting the AICTE to serve showcause notices to 50 colleges this year for lack of faculty and infrastructure. There were allegations that AICTE and university officials are bowing down to the pressure of private managements and granting approvals and affiliations indiscriminately. Most of the colleges enjoy considerable political clout.

AICTE’s initiative to promote women engineering colleges by relaxing norms of land from 10 acres to 5 acres and granting extra intake in each branch from 60 to 90 resulted in a huge rush for setting up colleges. It has already permitted 23 colleges and another 15 are expected to come up soon. Of the new colleges, nearly 70 per cent were set up by those institutions which are already running engineering colleges.

According to norms, in the first year of engineering, a college should have one professor, four assistant professors and l1 lecturers. In the fourth year, these numbers should be four, 16 and 44 respectively. A professor should have a M.Tech degree plus Ph.D or 10 years of teaching experience. For an assistant professor, it should be M.Tech plus seven years of teaching experience, for a lecturer the eligibility is B.Tech passed in first division. But half the colleges ignore the rule.

"The government has little to do as AICTE approves new colleges. The managements apply to the AICTE and get approval," Mr K.C. Reddy, the chairman of APSCHE, said.
(Source : DC)