UVCE loses 10% of seats due to faculty shortage

University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), the most sought-after government institute through Common Entrance Test, has lost 10% of its seats due to a shortage of teachers.

A few months ago, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had communicated to the college about the 10% cut following the recommendation of the screening committee that cited the shortage of permanent teaching faculties.

The regulator of technical education did not restore the 10% seats despite the institute submitting its appeal.

The AICTE, on the other hand, had recently restored seats it sliced off at other government institutes.

The vice-chancellor of Bangalore University Prof K R Venugopal said he would soon meet the AICTE chairperson on the issue.

“We’ve filed an appeal before the council to restore the seats, as soon as we received the communication about the 10% reduction. We also submitted the necessary documents. Despite the request and appeal, there’s no communication from AICTE regarding restoring the seats,” Prof Venugopal said.

He also said the faculties at the college, compared to other institutions, are well-qualified though not permanent. “I’ll explain this to the AICTE chairman and will hope to get the seats restored,” he added.

Documents available with DH suggest that the shortage of qualified permanent staff is a major deficiency that prompted the screening committee to recommend the reduction of seats.

The reduction of 10% of seats at UVCE will hurt the students looking to get admission to the undergrad engineering courses through CET during 2019-20.

Seats at UVCE get almost filled at the first round of seat allotment and the institute is the only government-run college that competes with the private institutions.

Out of the sanctioned teaching staff of around 175, UVCE currently has filled 91 positions.

“For the past ten years, we’re managing with guest faculties and the guest faculties working with us are well-qualified and eligible as per the AICTE norms,” Venugopal explained.