The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to grant three-year grace time for the 800 technical colleges, which were identified for closure due to less than 30% student enrolment over the past three years, to improve admissions. “The AICTE did contemplate closure of the 800 engineering, management, polytechnic and pharmacy colleges after receiving complaints about their inability to pay salary to the faculty, but finally decided to factor in the admissions for the next three years since they require sufficient time for planning,” Alok Prakash Mittal, Member Secretary, AICTE, said.
These institutions have been given the option of scaling down intake by 50% if they are unable to fill the sanctioned strength, said Prof. Mittal. He told The Hindu that the managements could ensure utilisation of the resources by starting popular non-engineering programmes.
