The All India Council for Technical Education will not permit private persons or organisations to start any new engineering or pharmacy college next academic year, said chairman Anil D. Sahasrabudhe.
The restriction may be relaxed, however, for the government, that too only in select districts, Mr. Sahasrabudhe said. Colleges may be permitted only in under-represented districts.
“The government has declared 200 districts aspirational. If there are no colleges in these districts then we may permit colleges there,” he told The Hindu.
Mr. Sahasrabudhe was in the city to inaugurate a two-day workshop on socially relevant technical education, organised by the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Sri City.
Fall in enrolment
On whether there had been a further fall in enrolment for engineering courses, he said a clear picture would emerge only post-January when colleges approach the council for permission.
In the past decade, enrolment in engineering colleges has been falling drastically. The AICTE has been reducing intake across the country in colleges.
In Tamil Nadu, which had of over 600 colleges, the enrolment fell from 2.75 lakh to just one lakh this year. While at least half a dozen colleges have shut down, over a dozen colleges did not admit students this academic year.
Last year, four colleges of pharmacy were allowed to start. But none of these colleges figured in the National Institutional Ranking Framework.
Only two State government-run colleges made it to the NIRF ranking — one affiliated to the Madras Medical College and another, to Annamalai University.
While the ranking fell from 41 in 2018 to 47 in 2019 for MMC-affiliated college, Annamalai University’s college improved its ranking from 20 to 12 this year.
