25 professional colleges set to shut in Telangana

HYDERABAD: With fewer people choosing to study technical courses in college, there will be a drop of a staggering 9,777 seats in technical institutions in Telangana, highest in the country, this year. Twenty five professional colleges have sought closure from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in the academic year 2019-20.
According to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) figures, Telangana has observed the highest drop in number of seats, followed by Uttar Pradesh which will see a seat cut of 8,722 seats and Maharashtra, which will lose 8,124 seats, in the ensuing academic year.

Of the 25 colleges that will be shut in Telangana, 15 are engineering and polytechnic colleges, 17 MBA and PGDM colleges, two pharmacy colleges and one MCA college. Apart from this, colleges have also sought approval for scrapping 35 BTech courses and 96 MTech courses from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad.

AICTE has attributed reduction in seats to three primary reasons. “While few colleges were shut owing to less than 30 per cent admissions registered in the last three years, others sought closure due to fewer takers and lack of requisite funds, faculty and infrastructure to run the show,” said Anil Sahasrabudhe, chairman of AICTE.
Colleges claim that it is no longer feasible to run traditional courses, such as electrical, civil, mechanical and electronics engineering, as only 40 per cent of the seats are filled up in these branches, as opposed to 60 per cent which are filled up in computer science engineering.
“The JNTUH, which is the affiliating university in Telangana for 90 per cent engineering institutions, has failed to introduce new technology courses. It is high time that the university allows us to introduce new courses,” said Srini Bupalam, vice-president of All India Federation of Self-Financing Technical Institutions.
Despite the Telangana State Council of Higher Education’s request to not approve any new institutions, the AICTE has approved five new institutions from the ensuing academic year. Of the five new institutions, two are architecture and design, two pharmacy and one engineering college respectively. The five new institutions will add 2,736 seats in Telangana.