There Will Be Around 80,000 Less Engineering Seats This Year

The number of engineering seats available in the country will come down by around 80,000 this year, the Times of India has reported.

However, there is no reason to be alarmed. According to the report, the number of engineering seats has been on the decline since 2014-15.

Additionally, the enrollment in engineering colleges has been on the decline since 2012-13. Enrollment came down to 7.87 lakh in 2016-17 from that of 9.73 lakh in 2012-13, the daily’s report says.

The All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE) has revealed that the number of seats come down by around 75,000 each year. While the total intake capacity in 2015-16 was 16,47,155, only 8,60,357 enrollments were reported. This was 52.2 per cent of the total available capacity in the country. In 2016-17, the number of seats available in colleges across India came down to 15,71,220 and enrollments decreased to 7,87,127. This was 50.1 per cent of the total available capacity.

"This year too there will be around 80,000 seats less. Around 200 colleges have applied for closure as they were having very low admissions in the recent past," AICTE Chairperson Anil Sahasrabudhe has said.

"The colleges will continue to function till the current batches graduate. However, these colleges will not enrol new students from this year. So, effectively, these colleges will seize to function as engineering institutions from about three-four years from now," Sahasrabudhe added.

The number of colleges offering engineering and architecture programs, around 3,415 currently, will come down further as the AICTE pushes for National Board of Accreditation (NBA) approval for colleges. According to Sahasrabudhe, the AICTE plans to increase the percentage of NBA accredited colleges in the county to over 50 per cent by 2022 from around 15 per cent currently.

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