JOIN USWorried colleges to discuss way out
By the end of counselling sessions in September 2009, several rural and urban private colleges were left with hundreds of unfilled engineering seats. The sudden dip in the admissions in private colleges has led them to take precautionary action this time.
Students from across the country have been keen on private engineering colleges in the State. However, with the government coming up with the fee concessions and subsidy on educational loans, local students have made government colleges their choice of institution.
K B Munivenkata Reddy, Vice Chairman, Forum of Engineering Colleges Association, says, “Last academic year’s (2009) experience has left a huge negative impact on private institutions. Rural and urban colleges have had unfilled seats and the fee at private colleges too are not affordable by students. Banking on students from other states has become a thing of past, and even local students are not choosing private colleges for studies.”
Another reason for the decline in admissions, has been the mushrooming of engineering colleges in neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Kerala. Reddy pointed out, “Private institutions are in the dock with the sudden dip in the admissions. This is a serious situation and during the fag end of the admission process, private colleges and government colleges are not able to fill engineering seats.”
As the government and private college managements have started their talks to establish the seat sharing ratio for professional courses like medicine, engineering, dental and Ayurveda, there is a need for a clear cut policy enlisting the admissions and a solution for unfilled seats.
General body meeting
Reddy explained, “Private managements have scheduled a general body meeting next week to arrive at concrete corrective measures to solve the problem of unfilled vacant engineering seats. The outcome of the meeting will be presented to the higher education minister and secretary and the memorandum will contain the details and the practical action to be taken to keep the problem of unfilled seats at bay.”
The increasing number of engineering colleges being permitted by the All India Council for Technical Educational and the government too has contributed to the problem of unfilled engineering seats.
“The government should come up with a strong policy to curtail the mushrooming of new engineering colleges as there are no takers and the purpose of establishing an educational institution is belittled,” Reddy added.