Following years of declining consumption and consolidation, primarily on account of a droop in demand and government-mandated limits, the variety of BTech seats obtainable throughout the nation has hit an eight-year excessive, based on knowledge from All India Council for Technical Training (AICTE).
The accepted consumption for undergraduate engineering and expertise programmes for the educational 12 months 2024-25 is 14.90 lakh — a rise of about 18.84% from 12.54 lakh in 2021-22 when the entire variety of seats reached the bottom in a decade.
The brand new excessive comes after the consumption noticed a year-on-year decline for many of the previous decade, from round 17.05 lakh seats in 2014-15. The 2022-23 educational 12 months marked the primary enhance in a decade, with a modest rise of a bit of underneath 2%, adopted by a 5% hike the next 12 months (see chart).
For 2024-25, consumption has surged by 10%, including over 1.4 lakh seats from 13.5 lakh the earlier 12 months. The newest quantity, nevertheless, remains to be lower than the consumption throughout the primary three years of the decline: 17.05 lakh (2014-15), 16.30 lakh (2015-16) and 15.56 lakh (2016-17).
In line with AICTE knowledge, of the rise in seats this 12 months, the most important chunk or greater than 50% comes from three southern states: Tamil Nadu (32,856), Andhra Pradesh (23,518) and Telangana (20,213).
The accepted consumption in Tamil Nadu, which was 2,75,830 seats final 12 months, now stands at 3,08,686 — the utmost for a state total. Andhra Pradesh had an accepted consumption of 1,60,014 seats final 12 months, which has elevated to 1,83,532 this 12 months, coming subsequent after TN total. And Telangana’s quantity final 12 months of 1,25,344 seats rose to 1,45,557.
AICTE Member Secretary Rajive Kumar attributed the general enhance in numbers to 2 components: approvals granted for engineering and expertise programs for working professionals, and the removing in 2023-24 of an embargo on including new seats in BTech programmes.
“The programme for working professionals was launched for the primary time (in 2023-24). These are supernumerary seats. With this, the variety of seats has gone up by round 40,000 to 50,000, and round 400 to 500 establishments have been given approval for this programme. These establishments have began taking admissions,” Kumar stated.
The entire variety of accepted establishments for undergraduate engineering programs this 12 months is 2,906. Kumar stated that 1,256 establishments have been accepted for a rise in consumption this 12 months, together with the approvals for working professionals’ programs, including that the rise in consumption was largely for programs within the laptop area.
The programme is supposed for these working in organisations, industries or MSMEs positioned inside a 50-km radius of the institute, and have a minimal of a 12 months’s full-time work expertise. These are meant for UG, PG and diploma programs, and might help those that could wish to full their programs after they’ve begun working, Kumar stated.
Beginning in 2023-24, AICTE additionally lifted the higher restrict beforehand imposed on seat numbers in present engineering schools. This resolution adopted a assessment by an AICTE-appointed committee, which advisable lifting the cap after noting an encouraging enhance in admissions for core engineering branches in 2022-23. The occupancy of BTech seats in that educational 12 months was 81% in comparison with 71% in 2021-22.
“This (the lifting of the seat cap) is topic to the achievement of infrastructure availability, its readiness and crammed college place. Earlier than grant of approval to the rise in consumption sought by the establishment, the council shall verify the infrastructure and college availability,” AICTE’s approval course of handbook for 2024-25 to 2026-27 stated.
Kumar stated, “As much as 420 seats, we now have granted approval on self-declaration foundation (an institute can apply for a rise in consumption by offering a self-declaration on amenities obtainable). If the requested consumption is to be greater than 420 seats, we now have visited the institutes nearly, after which accepted or denied the request, based mostly on availability of infrastructure, college, laboratories. Earlier, this determine was 360 seats.”
The seven years of consolidation in engineering consumption and closures of institutes from 2014-15 to 2021-22 was seen as a market response to diminished demand forcing schools to close down.
In December 2017, an investigation by The Indian Specific confirmed there have been no takers for 51 per cent of 15.5 lakh undergraduate seats in 3,291 engineering schools in 2016-17.
The investigation discovered obtrusive gaps in regulation, together with alleged corruption; a vicious circle of poor infrastructure, labs and college; non-existent linkages with business; and the absence of a technical ecosystem to nurture the classroom. All this, it discovered, accounted for low employability of graduates.
A couple of weeks later, AICTE introduced its resolution to cut back consumption in programs with poor admissions by half, beginning educational 12 months 2018-19.
In 2019, it introduced a two-year moratorium on new institutes and new seats. Nevertheless, there have been just a few exceptions to the ban. Current engineering institutes had been allowed to begin new programmes in new applied sciences or convert present capability in conventional engineering branches to rising new expertise areas equivalent to synthetic intelligence, blockchain, robotics, quantum computing, knowledge sciences, cyber safety and 3D printing.
