AICTE Slashes Nearly 2 Lakh Seats Owing to Less Demand: Report

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(Photo: Altered by Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

Data released by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) shows that the number of seats across technical institutions has been slashed by nearly 2 lakh in 2020. According to a report by The Print, admissions for the year 2020-21 will be for 30,86,022 seats, as opposed to 32,85,018 seats in the previous year.

This is reportedly in response to a diminished demand for admission in technical courses like engineering, pharmacy, management, and architecture.

A senior AICTE official reportedly told The Print that several colleges that did not have the minimum number of students have shut down. The AICTE has also banned any new pharmacy and engineering colleges from cropping up until the academic year 2021-22, the report added.

“The reduction in the number of seats across colleges is mainly because of shutting down of colleges that did not have the minimum number of students to run the institution. There were some colleges that did not even apply for the renewal of affiliation and hence they were shut down.”   

An AICTE official to The Print

The data on the AICTE official website suggests that the number of seats occupied are half the number of seats available each year, reported The Print.

“Intake across colleges is coming down each year because of strict AICTE regulations. It is a process to weed out colleges that were running like a fly-by-night operator.”   

An AICTE official to The Print

(With inputs from The Print.)