The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : AICTE cuts 4,127 seats in 51 engineering colleges

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 07, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

AICTE cuts 4,127 seats in 51 engineering colleges

K. Ramachandran

Shortage of faculty key reason for reduction

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu's engineering seat matrix for the coming academic year has changed. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has notified a reduction of 4,127 seats in 51 engineering colleges in the State.

The AICTE has decided to cut 1,446 seats in the B.Tech (IT) branch in colleges, 813 in electronics and communication engineering, 679 in computer science and 415 in electrical and electronics engineering, 245 in electronics and instrumentation and 200 in civil engineering.

At the same time, the Board has approved an additional intake of 240 seats in about a dozen colleges. So the total reduction of seats in engineering this year is 3,887 seats.

Tamil Nadu had about 70,000 seats but with the reduction, the seat matrix would come down to about 66,000 plus. In 32 colleges, the intake into B.Tech (IT) courses has been reduced and, in 22, the entire IT intake has been cancelled.

In two institutions, the complete intake for 2005-06 has been cancelled. Even established colleges such as Thiagarajar College (Madurai) and Velammal Engineering (Chennai), have suffered in this exercise.

A notification issued by AICTE on its website (www.aicte.ernet.in) said as part of its mandate to ensure quality, it had prescribed a set of norms for colleges to fulfil while imparting engineering programmes.

This year, the council did a comprehensive inspection of the colleges to appraise the quality of delivery of education. It noted that the inspections/appraisals indicated areas of concern such as faculty shortage, both in terms of quantity and quality; lack of qualified principals; poor pay to teachers or teachers; inadequacy of full-time teachers, laboratories, workshops or library, hostels, internet connectivity; and even basic facilities like drinking water or toilets.

While giving colleges an opportunity to make up for all other deficiencies, the Council this year focussed on the shortage of faculty for the extension of approval for 2005-06.

For 2005-06, new courses or increase in intake has been allowed for institutions which are running existing courses satisfactorily.

There has been no reduction in the sanctioned intake in colleges, which have 75 per cent or more of the required faculty — student ration as per norms (1:15). But a proportionate reduction has been made for colleges that have a faculty strength between 50 and 75 per cent of the required norm. If the faculty strength is less than 50 per cent of the norms, no admission can be made for the course this year.

The notification says institutions can seek to restore their intake if they make up for the deficiency in faculty and intimate the council by July 7 in a prescribed format.

In cases where there are complaints reported at the time of inspection or/and by the State Government, the decision on extension of approval will be separately communicated by June 15.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section

Tamil Nadu abolishes common entrance test

TNEB unbundling: request rejected

Decision worries admissions managers

AICTE cuts 4,127 seats in 51 engineering colleges

Affection knows no hurdles

Engineering colleges association to meet

No speed breakers

Sethu project: MoU with Suez Canal officials to share know-how

Hearing in bus burning case resumes

Trust to build permanent houses to tsunami-hit

Fresh summons issued to Joshi

Briefly