Makeover for engineering colleges soon?

HYDERABAD: Engineering education in the country is all set to get a makeover this year with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) making it mandatory for colleges to follow the new cadre ratio and also mandating increasing the number of labs by 100 per cent.

As per the AICTE Approval Process Handbook (APH) 2018-19 released on Friday, the council has advised all colleges to have smart classroom, and made induction training (for 3 weeks) mandatory for all the first year students. "For every post graduate course, there should be at least one professor with PhD qualification. Cadre ratio (professors: assistant professors: lecturers) shall be 1:2:6," read the AICTE rule.

In contrast, the student-faculty ratio for B Tech courses, which was at 1:15, has been reduced to 1:20 and the percentage of adjunct faculty has been reduced from 20 to 10 percent.


Meanwhile, the mandatory land requirement for a college in urban areas has been reduced from 2.5 acres to 1.5 acres and from 7.5 acres to 4 acres in rural areas.

"While we welcome most of the norms put forth by AICTE , We are disappointed that it has reduced the percentage of adjunct faculty that a college can rope in. When introduced in 2017, they said that this move will develop viable collaboration between educational institutions and the industry and will enhance the quality of education. Reducing the percentage, we believe, will be a loss to the student community," said Srini Bhupalam, vice-president, All India Federation of Self-Financing Technical Institutions.

The All Federation of Engineering colleges, on the other hand, said most of the rules listed were practically impossible to follow and added that they would approach the court, if necessary, to get relaxations.