AICTE approval for 100 institutes to start admissions in 2020-21 | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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AICTE approval for 100 institutes to start admissions in 2020-21

By, Mumbai
Aug 01, 2020 10:56 PM IST

Over 100 new professional institutes for engineering, management, and pharmacy have received approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to start admissions from the 2020-21 academic year. Keeping in mind the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19, for the first time, AICTE approved these colleges by scrutinising all necessary documents online and conducting a virtual tour of the institute to check the infrastructure, before signing off on their approvals.

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According to figures shared by AICTE, a total of 58 new engineering diploma and degree colleges have been approved for the 2020-21 academic year, increasing the overall intake capacity by 16,333 seats. However, due to the gradual decline in overall demand for engineering seats, more than 600 engineering institutes have sought a reduction in their intake capacity, and another 140 institutes across the country have asked for permission to shut down completely. This will further bring down the total intake capacity of engineering institutes by over 1.22 lakh in the upcoming academic year.

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In a statement released in May, the council had clarified that the requirement of documents remains the same as for the previous few years. “We devised online scrutiny of documents and virtual institute inspections in order to proceed with approval of new colleges. This was done as the approval process could not be delayed any further, and therefore, we had to come up with a viable solution,” said Anil Sahasrabuddhe, chairman, AICTE. He added that the online scrutiny has been at par with any physical scrutiny done in the past.

Once again this year, not a single new engineering institute has received approval in Maharashtra for 2020-21, as yet.

Last year, new approvals made way for 54,618 seats across diploma, undergraduate (UG) and post-graduate (PG) institutes. However, the total intake capacity of engineering institutes went down by over 2.20 lakh, which included 99,806 diploma seats and 1.20 lakh UG and PG seats, owing to either closure of institutes or divisions in certain sectors.

“Engineering institutes across the country have been suffering, and a majority of them have not managed to attract enough students over the years. The ban on new engineering institutes has been to ensure control over the mushrooming of institutes that don’t promise quality education,” said Sahasrabuddhe.

Since the two-year ban on new engineering institutes was implemented starting 2020, several institutes have sought permission to start new branches in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Data Science and Analytics, and Robotics.

“Several branches of engineering, including civil and mechanical, are attracting very few students off late due to the low job offers they get. The software industry, on the other hand, is continuously evolving and thus, attracting good jobs and students,” said Gopakumaran Thampi, principal, Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, Bandra. He added that reducing seats in redundant branches and giving a boost to new dimensions in the field are moves welcomed by engineering aspirants.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Shreya Bhandary is a Special Correspondent covering higher education for Hindustan Times, Mumbai. Her work revolves around finding loopholes in the current education system and highlighting the good and the bad in higher education institutes in and around Mumbai.

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