58 engineering colleges in UP get zero students!

By: Saurabh Pareek Updated On: 28-Feb-2014, 09:27

 

Of the 1.26 lakh seats on offer through counselling in UP, nearly 4/5th found no takers. 58 colleges could not fill a single seat. Are we reaching an implosion point in engineering education? 

Since 2000, the burgeoning need for good quality technical institutions has seen a spate of engineering colleges being established thereby giving rise to a hope of meeting the needs of the engineering industry with highly skilled and qualified engineers. The reality though is in stark contrast. In an over eagerness to achieve the impossible, permissions and grants have been given to so many institutes that it seems to be doing more harm than good.  Poor quality of education has become the order of the day with faculty crunch being one of the outcomes of the increasing sad state of affairs. With no proper measuring mechanism in place, it is no wonder that a miniscule number of Indian Universities or colleges are known and ranked globally.

This is not restricted to just one state. It is spread across the country with many states having reported a large number of vacant seats. UP, Tamilnadu, Rajasthan, well the story is the same everywhere.

Uttar Pradesh has around 306 engineering colleges and 1.26 lakh+ seats were offered through common counselling seats in various government aided, private and government aided-self financed colleges last year. While the top engineering colleges including government institutions were able to fill their seats, the average and lesser known colleges have been left in the lurch.

Type Of Institute	Total Seats	Total Allotted Seats	Vacant seats	%age of empty seats
Govt./Aided Self Finance	1338	1338	0	0
Other University	2280	1856	424	18.59
Govt.Aided College	3017	3017	0	0
Private College	120249	19936	100313	83.42
Total	126884	26147	100737	79.39

Source: UPSEE Website

58 engineering colleges in the state of Uttar Pradesh ended up with no seats filled situation which accounts for nearly 20% of the total colleges, where as 187 engineering colleges saw 1% to 20% of total seats filled.  Thus collectively over 245 colleges saw less than 20% admissions.

Is the Delhi-NCR factor only reason for good allocation to the 7 colleges?

Only 7  private engineering colleges managed to have 100 % of the seats filled. And 90% of them are from the NCR.  The colleges that make to the list of 100% allocation include AK Garg Engineering College-Ghaziabad, RK Goel Institute of Technology-Ghaziabad, ABES Ghaziabad, JSS Acadamy of Technical Education-Noida, Galgotia’s College of Engineering and Technology-Greater Noida and the only non-NCR zone college that makes to the list is Sri Rammurti Smarak College of Engineering and Technology-Bareilly.  Proximity to a metropolitan town does appear to make a difference.

Cost and quality does play a role

It is heartening to see the performance of government aided and government aided colleges. All the colleges under these two categories found deserving candidates for all seats which indicates that even though privatization of education has lead to increase in the number of colleges but it’s the government colleges that still occupies the top position and choice for engineering aspirants. Cost definitely is a factor here. And quality too plays a role. Similar trend is indicated in the national and global rankings where IITs, NITs and Central Universities consistently hold the top positions.

Why engineering seats keep waiting for deserving candidates?

The big question is ‘What ahead’? This poor condition of engineering education in Uttar Pradesh is a model that can be seen in lot of states of India. Last year’s data shows that Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh also have seen vacant seats and empty colleges.

Academicians blame it on the increasing number of technical education and sanctioning the increase in seats to already existing colleges by AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), the authority governing the engineering institutions in India. They also point out that there are no stringent rules followed by AICTE to ensure that proper academic standards must be maintained by the existing institutions and has also been loose in granting permission to new institutes without much auditing and standard check.

Is education just a business now?

On one hand there are new technical institutions given permissions to start and a major fraction end up in part of the herd of average institutions providing lackluster infrastructure and academic facilities like laboratories and libraries. On other hand, the already existing colleges are granted permission to increase the number of seats without concomitant increase in the facilities and resources for the new batch of students entering the college.

Vinod Kumar, a father, himself educated at Banaras Hindu University-Allahabad (Now IIT-BHU) said “I don’t remember colleges and universities having big hoardings and launching marketing campaigns when I was a student. The process was fairly simple-you apply for an exam and if you clear you get admission. But now it’s a show-off game, colleges with deep pockets invest heavily on marketing and promotions which I believe degrade the environment.”

What’s worrying is, what Vinod has point out, cannot be ignored. Yes the education has emerged as a market place and a lot of business groups have entered the domain and are making big money. Marketing and strategic promotional campaigns have been utilized to ensure they target the students has been part of the plan.

Future of engineering education in India-The road ahead?

The path we are on right now looks dangerous. With 80% seats going empty it is sure that we are not heading the right way.  The appropriate responses could be:

• Approval processes need to be stringent so that only the best are granted permission for engineering college or increase in seat quota,
• Audit  process to be tightened to force the technical institutions to constantly work and raise their standards and
• Time bound measures to be put in place to raise the standards of approved colleges are measures to be taken to shut them down.

 But will the authorities act? Will institutions without students be asked to close down? What would be the UP Govt’s response?