Eight engineering colleges in Karnataka get AICTE nod for evening courses

Bengaluru: Eight engineering colleges in the state have got the permission from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to offer evening courses for working professionals.

Of the eight, five colleges are in Bengaluru while one each are in Gadag, Mysuru and Tumakuru.

As the AICTE has made accreditation of the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) compulsory, several colleges including the government-run University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) have failed to secure the permission.

Around 25 institutions had applied from the state.

However, the AICTE has directed the colleges to complete admissions for the evening courses by October 30. But the authorities of the colleges say it’s a short notice.

“It will be difficult to complete admissions in the next ten days with at least two government holidays coming next week,” said a principal of an engineering college which got permission to run an evening course.

Meanwhile, some principals said that they will write to the AICTE requesting to extend the admission deadline for professional courses.

As explained by Prof Sadashive Gowda, principal of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering Mysuru, only working professionals are allowed to join the courses and in case of shortage of academic days, they could even conduct classes on weekends. “They have given options to conduct classes both during evening hours and weekends. The classes for some subjects can also be conducted online and the credits can be transferred,” he said.

However, the AICTE has imposed a condition that those getting admission to evening courses should be residing within 50-km radius of the college.

During the academic year 2019-20, the AICTE had withdrawn the evening engineering concept amid quality concerns. Following the order the admissions were discontinued for evening colleges.

However, considering the demand, the Council had decided to re-introduce the concept from current academic year.