Evening engg colleges walk into sunset as admissions fall

AICTE officials said that the decision was taken during the 2019-20 academic year

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has taken a decision to do away with the concept of evening engineering colleges.

It has given oral instructions to institutions that run evening engineering classes in this regard. Some of the colleges which reported no admission this academic year have already been converted
into day colleges.

Sources in AICTE told DH that the decision was taken during the 2019-20 academic year.

“While the decision was taken during the last academic year, it will be implemented for the 2021-22 admissions. This will be communicated to the state higher education departments concerned for further action,” said an official from AICTE.

The decision to discontinue evening engineering colleges has come as a huge disappointment to the working professionals who would seek admission to these colleges to pursue higher education.

“The admissions were made through a Common Entrance Test ranking and candidates opting for evening colleges were largely working professionals,” said the principal of an evening engineering college.

These colleges were nicknamed ‘second shift college’ as they used to function with the same infrastructure, faculty and other resources of regular engineering colleges.

Prof H N Ramesh, principal, University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bengaluru, said, “As per the oral communication by AICTE, there may not be any evening engineering colleges from the next academic year.”

UVCE was one of the most sought after evening engineering colleges in Karnataka with an intake of 180 students per year.

Data from KEA shows a falling demand for engineering colleges across the state.

While the evening engineering colleges functioned like any other engineering college, the duration of the course was just three years, while it is four years in regular colleges.