THE BIG CHURN

Struggling to adapt curriculums to emerging trends and keep up with the changing needs of industry, engineering institutions are attracting fewer students and either shutting down or slashing the number of available seats

- Amarnath K. Menon

In 2014-15, engineering institutions approved by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had around 3.2 million seats on offer—the highest ever. From that peak, the total number of seats for undergraduate, postgraduate, and diploma courses has been plummeting, down to a decadal low of around 2.32 million in 2020-21. To AICTE chairman Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe, the crisis in engineering education in the country is also an opportunity. “The number of engineering institutions had grown exponentially, leading to over-capacity and a high number of vacant seats. The recent trend of engineering colleges shutting down or reducing seats will lead to consolidation and ensure sustained quality in the years to come,” says Sahasrabudhe, now in his seventh year as India’s technical education regulator.

In 2019-20, the AICTE approved 153 new engineering institutions while closing down 53 others. Even before the Covid-induced disruption in 2020-21, at least 50 engineering colleges have shut shop each academic year since 2015-16. This year, 63 colleges have got the AICTE’s nod to stop operations (see Open and Shut). The closure of these colleges and reduced intakes of students will lower the number of seats by 146,000.