Engineering colleges question AICTE data on closure of courses

A few engineering institutes in the state have challenged the data of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on closure of a few courses.

In an article that appeared on July 15, Deccan Herald had quoted the AICTE data in relation to three colleges in the state and mentioned the courses that were closed in these colleges. The AICTE data mentions that in 2016-17, RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru shut down two courses in the architecture stream - BArch (town planning) and MArch (urban design).

Col Sivakumar Thammaiah,  registrar, RV College of Architecture, told Deccan Herald that there is no course called B Arch (town planning) in RV College of Engineering or RV College of Architecture. He, however, said that B Arch and M Arch (urban design) courses were shut in R V College of Engineering in 2014 as they were shifted to a separate campus - the RV College of Architecture - in 2014. These courses continue to exist under the affiliation of the Council of Architecture and not the AICTE, he said.

According to the AICTE data, Dr P G Halakatti College of Engineering and Technology, Vijayapura, discontinued three BE courses - civil, mechanical, electrical and electronics engineering. The college management, however, said that the courses including the MCA continue. The Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology, Bengaluru, said that BE (civil and mechanical engineering) and two postgraduate programmes continue contrary to what the AICTE data reflected. Only an evening course in BE (civil and mechanical engineering) was closed in 2014, the management said. When asked about the errors in its data, Anil Sahasrabudhe, AICTE chairman, said, “I will verify the errors, if any. In case there are mistakes, they will be rectified.”