JOIN USAndhra Pradesh, which basked in the glory of being a leading educational hub, is now staring at the problem of plenty as the professional colleges mushroomed in the state have registered poor response.
Several private engineering colleges are now facing the risk of closure following poor response from students. There are about 700 engineering colleges in the state with over 2.26 lakh seats. However, over 1.08 lakh seats had no takers this year.
Following rapid decline in the admissions, about 40 engineering colleges, located in and around the city, have sought the government's permission to shut down. These colleges have had only five to six admissions for the past three years. This year, 13 out of the 609 private engineering colleges had zero admissions.
Not long ago, many professional colleges in the state capital and other cities were the hot destinations for students seeking a wide array of undergraduate courses in engineering, medicine, pharmacy and computer science streams.
Indiscriminate sanction of colleges in private sector, poor infrastructure, faculty, laboratory and other facilities and falling standards in the new colleges are among the factors that contributed to the declining demand. Adding to this was the government’s flip-flop over the fee reimbursement policy.
Over 250 colleges reported less than 100 admissions, indicating a sharp decline in demand among the students.
The prolonged political unrest over Telangana statehood issue has further compounded the problem.
There has been a large-scale migration of students to the neighbouring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to pursue professional education.
According to the All India Council for Technological Education, out of 143 technical institutes from 14 states which applied for permission to close down last year, 56 are from Andhra Pradesh.
According to a NASSCOM study, Andhra Pradesh has been producing only five to eight per cent of “employable engineering graduates” every year as against the national average of 25 per cent.