JNTU-Hyderabad schools engineering college management on running courses

Hyderabad: The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTU-H) has come up with new regulations for issuing no-objection certificates (NOC) for its affiliated engineering colleges. According to the JNTU-H authorities, it is distributed with a growing trend of 'profitability is the priority' ruling the running of engineering colleges affiliated to it.

The college managements a going gaga over the emerging courses and seeking approvals to start new B.Tech programmes with specialisations like Data Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML).

However, while applying to new specialisation, the college managements have been asking for NOCs for the closer of the existing courses of B.Tech with specialisations in Civil Engineering (CE), Mechanical Engineering (ME), Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE). The reason being, the colleges feel these traditional courses are less attractive to get a sufficient number of students to them making them financially unviable to run them visa-a-visa the new specialisation.

In a circular to the colleges on Thursday, the JNTU-H said it has thoroughly reviewed the requests of the colleges for closure of the courses by some colleges for the academic year 2021-22.

It said that the colleges have requested for winding up the core engineering courses of CE, ME, EEE, apart from few other courses which were approved during the academic years 2020-21.

Schooling to the colleges applying for such NOC's the university said, "Engineering" means, a blend of all the traditional, conventional courses like CE, ME, EEE etc along with the emerging courses.

It further added, if all the courses offered by the colleges focus only on Computer Sciences and Engineering (CSE), and its allied courses in line with the current market demand and trends, then, it would lead to imbalance." Also, if this trend continues there is every possibility that the traditional courses will gradually disappear.

The university also reminded that the perspective plan submitted by the Telangana State government to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) highlighted the imbalance among the circuit branches like information technology, CSE and Electronic and Communication Engineering (ECE) versus other core engineering courses, which need to be corrected on a priority basis. This was to ensure that the manufacturing and other sectors do not suffer. Though the university always will encourage emerging and thrust areas, at the same time, "it is not at the cost of the traditional courses," the university underlined.

Another serious aspect that the JNTU-H highlighted was that the closing of the traditional courses would deprive the Polytechnic diploma candidates who seek admission into the second year of B.Tech traditional course through the Telangana State Engineering Common Entrance (TSECE) test.

Against this backdrop, the JNTU-H has decided to issue NOCs for closure of courses sought only if the college could not get admissions less than 30 per cent of the approved intake for the past two academic years. Besides, it has made it clear that the college should maintain at least one class in the traditional courses with an intake of 60 seats in CE, ME, EEE and the like.