To regulate the unchecked growth of technical/engineering education in the tier-1/metro cities of the State, the State government has decided to make a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from it mandatory to increase intake, offer new courses in private engineering colleges from the next academic year.
Minister for Higher Education M.C. Sudhakar recently wrote to All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) requesting stringent regulations on the issue. AICTE responded saying the State government could control engineering seats in private colleges. Following this, it has decided to bring this regulation at the State level.
“Lack of regulatory framework on institutions over offering new courses, increasing the number of seats in IT courses and decreasing the seats in other streams, especially in tier-1 cities, is creating an imbalance both at the regional level and in the number of students graduating in these streams as against job opportunities available in the market. Therefore, we have decided to bring regulations at the State level to avoid such a situation,” said Dr. Sudhakar. “The AICTE has already clarified that the State government can regulate engineering education. But ‘To-be-deemed universities’ come under the University Grant Commission (UGC). Therefore, I will write a letter to the UGC in this regard. And, we are also planning to amend the rules and regulations governing technical education in the State,” he said.
Presently, private engineering colleges apply for sanction of engineering seats and increase intake for various streams to AICTE, which examines these applications online and forwards them to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) for further inquiry. “VTU conducts an inspection through a Local Inquiry Committee on compliance of norms like staff, laboratory and other infrastructure. In many cases VTU grants permission based on an undertaking by the colleges that they would fulfil the requirements in due course. There is no larger picture taken into account in the whole process. From the next academic year, a NOC from the State government will be mandatory. This will help us plan engineering education in the State,” Dr. Sudhakar said.
