Ban on opening of new engineering institutes to continue: Pradhan

A committee headed by BVR Mohan Reddy had advised AICTE to stop setting up new colleges from the academic year 2020 and review the creation of new capacity every two years after that. 

A committee constituted by the government has recommended continuation of the moratorium on granting approvals to new engineering colleges barring some exceptions, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in written response to a question in the Lok Sabha. 

Low enrolment in engineering, diploma programmes 

“The committee held three meetings on October 18, November 10 and 30 to review the engineering capacity, enrolment and placement data over the last three years in engineering institutions. In the light of low enrolment into the engineering and diploma programmes across the country, the committee in its interim report submitted in December 2021 recommended to continue the moratorium on approving new engineering colleges in the country barring a few exceptions,” Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in the statement.  

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in 2018 constituted the committee headed by BVR Mohan Reddy, the chairman of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, to recommend short-term and medium-term prospective plans for engineering education in the country. The development came after AICTE observed that seats were lying vacant in several engineering colleges. 

In 2019, the Reddy committee advised AICTE to stop setting up new colleges from the academic year 2020 and “review” the creation of new capacity every two years after that. The committee observed that the capacity utilisation in engineering colleges during 2017-18 in undergraduate and postgraduate level was at 49.8 per cent and had recommended that no new capacity be approved by AICTE starting from the2020 \academic year and the creation of the new capacity can be reviewed every two years thereafter. 

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