Tamil Nadu: 11 engineering colleges seek to shut down over poor admissions

CHENNAI: After enduring poor admissions over the last few years, 11 engineering colleges in the state have applied to Anna University to close down from the 2020-21 academic year, while seven others have sought to stop new admissions.
The total number of engineering colleges under Anna University including stand-alone institutions offering architecture, MBA and MCA courses is now down to 537 from 557 in 2019-20.The fate of two colleges is not known as they are yet to communicate their decision to the authorities.

College principals in the city said more than 60 institutions with less than 10% new admissions were also in danger of closure. “A college without at leat 50% admissions cannot break even. Those with fewer admissions cannot hire good faculty and provide facilities like labs. The trend of colleges closing down will continue for at least the next two years,” said one.
Last year, after the end of engineering counselling, more than 80 colleges had recorded less than 10% admissions. Several others decided to trim intake in core courses like civil, mechanical and electrical engineering. “They surrendered around 8,000 seats in these branches including 1,400 in civil engineering,” said an official. Many also sought permission to start new courses in artificial intelligence and data science with an intake of around 6,000 seats.
Career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi said admission in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering streams was poor last year. “While reducing the intake in these courses, colleges also will reduce faculty strength in these streams.” Production engineering and automobile engineering are also likely to be closed in a few colleges following industry automation and lack of jobs.
Anna University vice-chancellor M K Surappa said reducing intake in core courses is not a happy situation. “We need engineers to build smart cities and smart homes. The curriculum needs to be redesigned to train non-computer science graduates in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics.” Specialised courses like BTech (artificial intelligence) should be offered only after ascertaining the demand and future workforce details, he added.
All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has allowed universities to offer courses in areas such as cyber security, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. With around 50% of seats vacant, the council said it would not accept applications for setting up new colleges for next two years.