More women’s engineering colleges this year

HYDERABAD: The State this year is set to witness a significant jump in the number of exclusive engineering colleges for women.

Out of about 100 more new engineering colleges likely to be sanctioned for the 2008-09 academic year, about 30 are expected to be exclusively for women.

The State already has 338 engineering colleges with a pool of 1.2 lakh seats. With the addition of new colleges, the number of engineering seats will touch 1.5 lakh, say officials.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has already approved the applications of 46 new engineering colleges with 11,850 more seats and the list has been forwarded to the State government.

Of this, 17 are exclusive colleges for women, according to the Department of Technical Education.
Apart from the growing preference of women for engineering courses, AICTE’s decision to relax rules for setting up women’s engineering colleges as a step towards women’s empowerment, had managements and societies queuing up before it with applications, said Chairman of State Council for Higher Education K. C. Reddy.

The AICTE increased the intake of seats from 60 to 90 per branch in women’s engineering colleges and also relaxed the infrastructure norm of 10 acres of land to five acres as special concession, he said. “This is a typical case of supply driven by the demand. Engineering course is becoming attractive for women because of better job prospects as education these days is increasingly getting defined by the ability to land a job,” Mr. Reddy said. The AICTE had set a cut off date as June 30 for considering applications for setting up new engineering colleges. The counselling for engineering admissions will commence from July 16.