Govt. Asks IIT Delhi to Draft Plan to Tackle Vacant Seats

More than half the seats are lying vacant in the technical institutions of the country, following which the Union government has asked the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi to prepare a report regarding the requirement for education programmes in engineering, technology, management, architecture and others in the period of next 10 to 15 years.

The perspective plan or the report will map out the current trends of the industry, job requirements etc. It will also help to predict the demand for technical courses in future so that AICTE takes it into consideration and accordingly approves seats and institutes in the country.

Interestingly, the largest number of education seats in India are in the engineering discipline (70%). The other 30% comprises of management, computer applications, architecture, town management, pharmacy and other.

Also Read: AICTESlashes 15,981 Engineering Seats in Tamil Nadu

As per last year's AICTE data, there are over 15.5 lakh seats in engineering offered by 3,291 colleges across the country. More than half of the seats are lying vacant in these colleges.

The main reason behind so many seats lying unfilled is due to gaps in the regulation of education and corruption. Some of the engineering colleges lack basic infrastructure, faculty and placement opportunities for the students that ultimately leads to unemployability of graduates.

Also Read: AICTE Planning to Introduce Open-Book Exams for Engineering Students

This is when AICTE decided that the technical colleges where the number of students is less than 30% in the past five years will have to reduce their intake by half from the current academic year starting July 2018. The council has decided not to permit the establishment of any new college if the state government has refused to provide them with a NOC, based on a perspective plan.