The Council has also cut down intake in several colleges and courses totalling 35,000 this year
Former West Bengal governor D.Y. Patil (right) makes a point to AICTE chairman Prof Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe (left) during the inaugural of the first Indian engineering Deans Council Global Summit in the city on Friday. (Photo: DC)
Chennai: Noting that engineering education in the country is at the crossroads, Prof Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe, chairman, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on Friday said 50 per cent of the total seats in engineering colleges across the country were lying vacant. The Council has also cut down intake in several colleges and courses totalling 35,000 this year.
Delivering a special address at the first Indian engineering Deans Council Global Summit on “Engineering education-current scenario & future prospects”, Prof Sahasrabudhe, who assumed charge as the council chairman recently, said of the 16 lakh seats in engineering colleges in India, over 8 lakh remained vacant.
Terming faculty shortage one of the biggest challenges in technical education, the he said that several private and government colleges lacked quality teaching staff.
“We don't have faculty and when it comes to quality faculty, that too with Ph.Ds they don't exist. This is not the case only in private colleges but in government institutes too,” he said.
Citing reports by industry bodies like Nasscom, Cii and Ficci about lack of employability of engineering graduates, Prof Sahasrabudhe said numbers might differ, but the fact was that a large number of engineering graduates were not employable.
Scheme to invite reputed foreign faculty : Pointing out that AICTE had envisaged a scheme -Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) - the eminent academician said engineering institutions in the country could invite reputed faculty from foreign countries to teach in Indian institutions for eight to 10 days.
He lamented that syllabi in most of the universities remain outdated and very few improved upon them. Advocating the need to provide autonomy to all engineering colleges, he said unless colleges were given autonomy they would not be able to have their own curriculum suitable for industry and society.
“Even though all institutes cannot become autonomous overnight, but in the next 10 to 15 years they can be made autonomous. It is India which still follows affiliated university model in the world,” he added.
President of Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) Pratapsinh K. Desai said that 40 per cent of teaching posts were vacant in technical institutions, including
IITs.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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