The ban on setting up of new engineering colleges in the country should continue beyond 2022-23, when the ongoing two-year moratorium ends, a committee set up by the Union government has recommended, citing low enrollment in engineering programmes.
The Ministry of Education informed Lok Sabha on Monday that the committee headed by IIT-Hyderabad chairman B V R Mohan Reddy has recommended that the moratorium, which had come into effect in 2020, should continue, “barring a few exceptions”.
“The Committee has held three meetings on 18.10.2021, 10.11.2021 & 30.11.2021 and reviewed the Engineering Capacity, Enrolment and Placement Data over the last three years in Engineering Institutions. In the light of low enrolments into the Engineering and Diploma programmes across the country, the Committee in its interim report submitted in December, 2021 recommended to continue the moratorium on approving new Engineering Colleges in the country barring a few exceptions,” Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in a written response in Lok Sabha.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had earlier announced a two-year moratorium starting 2020-21 on new engineering institutions based on a report by the Reddy committee, which was also tasked with reviewing the status of the ban from academic year 2022-23.
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AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabuddhe told The Indian Express that the committee will specify the exceptions in its final report.
An AICTE official said that the final report of the committee may allow addition of seats in non-traditional fields of engineering, new campuses in backward areas and expansion of existing institutions.
“It will not be a blanket ban. The exceptions will be clear by the end of December,” the official said.
The Reddy committee was set up in 2018 to prepare short-term and medium-term perspective plans for engineering education.
In its first report in 2019, the committee had observed that capacity utilisation during 2017-18 in undergraduate and postgraduate level was 49.8 per cent (intake capacity vs enrolment) and recommended that no new capacity be approved by AICTE starting from the academic year 2020.
“The creation of the new capacity can be reviewed every two years thereafter,” it had added.
Courtesy – Indian Express