The Hindu : Panel to inspect facilities for new engineering courses

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 23, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Panel to inspect facilities for new engineering courses

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Oct. 22. Despite the 6,000-odd unfilled seats in engineering colleges in the State this year, the opening of some more colleges is in the offing. An official committee set up for the purpose will inspect the facilities available at the institutions which have sought permission to start engineering courses.

The seats remained unfilled at the conclusion of the counselling for admissions done by the Common Entrance Test Cell.

The Government constituted a committee of experts headed by the Director of Technical Education on July 5, 2002 and asked it to go into the requests for opening new engineering colleges, starting of Master of Computer Application courses, and increasing the intake of students during 2003-2004. The committee will begin its work on October 25.

The Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, recently invited the private sector, especially the mathadipathis and other religious leaders, to open new professional colleges — medical and engineering.

According to an official press release, those wanting to open new colleges, offer MCA course, or seeking higher intake will have to apply to the Director of Technical Education with an inspection fee of Rs. 25,000 on or before October 25.

There are over 110 engineering colleges in the State, and Bangalore alone has 56 of them. One of the major problems faced by the new institutions is the dearth of teachers at all levels, lecturers, readers, and professors and also supporting personnel in laboratories and workshops. The problem is stated to be acute in subjects such as Computer Science and Information Science where those with higher marks and qualifications prefer employment in the industry. Most of the engineering colleges have on their faculty retired teachers from universities or engineering colleges. Many of the teachers are also reluctant to work in the new engineering colleges, most of which have been opened in rural areas lacking in transport facilities. However, most of the institutions have been operating their own buses to transport students and members of the staff. But in most cases it is a long haul.

The Government is permitting the new colleges to offer courses in new fields and not the traditional ones such as civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering despite the shortage of teachers.

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