No new engineering colleges to open in India till 2024

New Delhi: India will see no new engineering college till 2024, All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE) chairman Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe has said.

For its teacher's training programme, AICTE's name has been registered in the Guinness Book of World records, making it the first such organisation in the country which has found a place in the Guinness Book of World Record for the second time in a row.

Dr Sahasrabudhe shared some vital inputs during an interview. Excerpts from Interview: When will new engineering colleges open in the country?

At present, no new engineering colleges are required. So, no new engineering colleges will be opened till 2024. Expert committee in its interim recommendation has suggested that no new engineering colleges should be opened for two years.

Actually, there is no need to open colleges… And the committee has recommended this only. Why are no new engineering colleges required? What is the status of existing colleges?

Till date, more than 50 per cent of seats in the colleges are lying vacant, which means that resources are not being fully utilised… That is why investing in new engineering colleges is not right. In view of the current situation, it can be said that, of the existing colleges, only half of them are required. Even if the existing engineering colleges are reduced to half, students will get admission.

What is the problem when more seats are available?

Having more number of seats than required means that the revenue which is generated with the students' fees will be less. It will also impact resources of the institution, which affects appointment of faculty. With less revenue, faculty having less capabilities will have to be appointed so that they can work for a low salary and it will finally impact the standard of education… Taking note of all this, the expert committee has advised not to open new engineering colleges till 2024. However, there can be exceptions to this, which has to be seen.

As per the new education policy, there is a provision for providing technical education right from school-level, what is AICTE doing in that regard?

We are providing vocational education to children right from Class 6. It will be implemented on a wide scale. Curriculum for it has been made and teachers are being provided training. Under this, in school itself, students will be taught ambitious courses like Artificial Intelligence along with computers. Along with this, training will be imparted for skill in Agriculture, forest, water, handwork, among others.

AICTE's name has been registered in the Guinness Book of World Records for what sort of efforts?

AICTE's name has been registered in the Guinness Book of World records for our teacher' training programme — Atal Academy.

Faculty members employed in it continuously work to enhance the skills of teachers. During Atal training, teachers have to study, prepare assignments and pass with flying colours, post which they are provided with the certificate. During the corona period also, over 1.5 lakh teachers were trained within one year and that is the reason our name was registered in the Guinness book of world records.

What are the steps being taken to firmly implement the New Education Policy (NEP) in the country?

The NEP is being implemented on many levels. The implementation of the policy is being continuously and vigorously monitored, like various universities have been asked to implement choice-based credit. Universities have been asked to pass the policy in its academic council meeting. Very soon, the policy will be implemented in all universities across the country, under which the children will have freedom to study subjects of his/her choice. If a student of an engineering college has interest in music, then the college will arrange a music teacher to impart training to them… This is the choice-based credit system.