800 engineering colleges to shut down by 2018

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New Delhi: As many as 65 engineering colleges will be shut down in 2017. The AICTE has released a list of 65 engineering institutes which cannot admit students in the first year programme. However, the students who have studying will continue their studies.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to shut a total of 800 engineering colleges across India from the next academic year as admissions in colleges have dropped down over the past few years.
AICTE authorities have said colleges with less than 30 per cent admissions in the last five years have been asked to close down. “We have also given them an option of getting merged
with nearby colleges,” said AICTE chairman Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe told
newspersons.
There are 10,361 engineering colleges in the country. Maharashtra has a maximum of about 1,500 colleges, followed by Tamil Nadu (about 1,300), Uttar Pradesh (1,165), and Andhra Pradesh (about 800). Of the 37 lakh engineering seats, over 27 lakh have been lying vacant.
“The decision to close down colleges was taken after studying details of intake at all colleges across the country in the last five years,” he added. This year, 122 private engineering colleges had opted for closure and approximately 150 colleges are voluntarily closed down every year due to stricter AICTE norms.
The listed colleges have been asked to submit a report on their choice of closing down or merging with another college as the change will be effective from 2018-19 academic year. “This is one of the many steps planned towards improving the quality of engineering education. Some institutions failed to improve admissions and hence we had to take a tough call,” said AICTE authorities.
The progressive closure suggests that these colleges would not be conducting any fresh admissions from the next academic session but would continue with the existing batches, till they complete.
At least 77 institutes had closed down in the academic year 2014-15, 125 in 2015-16, 149 2016-17 and 65 institutions will be shut down in 2017-18.
While 20 engineering colleges in Karnataka have been shut down, the maximum number of colleges that have sought progressive closure are in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh.