Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Dec 7: All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has published in its web page the fact that about 300 engineering colleges in the country including 11 from Karnataka are facing the risk of being closed from the next academic year. One of these colleges, it is gathered, is located in Dakshina Kannada district.

As per information, about 19,000 engineering seats are lying vacant in Karnataka alone. The fact that the figure of vacant seats w=swelled from 1 5,561 in 2016-17 to 19,407 in 2017-18 gives an indication that students are losing interest in pursuing engineering courses.

AICTE, as per an information, has instructed colleges with an intake of less than 30 percent admissions during the last five years not to admit students afresh during the next academic year.

Out of about 3,000 engineering colleges in the country in which 13.56 lac students are studying, admission of students has been less than 50 percent in about 800 of them. Even among the 300 colleges with low intake, 150 have less than 20 percent admission. As per the web page, the 11 colleges set for closure in Karnataka include two from Hubballi, seven from Bengaluru, one from Ballari and one from Dakshina Kannada district.

The students seem to be turning away from engineering courses because of slump in recruitment in software companies, giving rise to this phenomenon whereas till a few years back, it was difficult for the aspirants to get a seat even in ordinary engineering colleges. Anumber of new engineering colleges have opened in the recent past, and the future of several of them are in jeopardy.