1

REFERENCE NOTE

No.53/RN/Ref./Nov/2017

For the use of Members of Parliament NOT FOR PUBLICATION1

STATE OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION

IN THE COUNTRY

Prepared by Shri Jayadev Sahu, Additional Director (23035025) and Smt. Lata Bansal, Joint Director of

Lok Sabha Secretariat under the supervision of Smt. Kalpana Sharma, Joint Secretary and

Smt. Anita Khanna, Director.--------------------------

The Reference Note is for personal use of the Members in the discharge of their Parliamentary duties, and is not for publication. This Service is not to be quoted as the source of information as it is based on the sources indicated at the end/in the text.

MEMBERS' REFERENCE SERVICE

LARRDIS

LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT, NEW DELHI

1

STATE OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN THE COUNTRY

Technical Education plays a vital role in human resource development of the country by

creating skilled manpower, enhancing industrial productivity and improving the quality of life of

its people. The basic purpose of technical education system is to produce trained manpower in

adequate number that is required for the economic and technological development of the country.

Technical Education covers programmes in engineering, technology, management, architecture,

town planning, pharmacy, applied arts & crafts, hotel management and catering technology.

Engineering education in India started during the British era and focused mainly on civil

engineering. The Engineering College at Roorkee (1847), Poona Civil Engineering College at

Pune (1854), Bengal Engineering College at Shibpur (1856), Banaras Hindu University (1916),

Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur (1920) were some of the earliest engineering

colleges established that continue till the present day.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was set up in November 1945 as a

national-level apex advisory body to conduct a survey on the facilities available for technical

education and to promote development in the country in a coordinated and integrated manner and

later on in 1987 was given the statutory status by an Act1 of Parliament.

In 1945 the Sarkar Committee was appointed by the AICTE under the Chairmanship of

Mr. N.R. Sarkar to suggest options for advanced technical education in India. The Sarkar

committee recommended the establishment of higher technical institutes based on the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the four regions of India. This resulted in the setting up

of the five Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur (1950), Bombay (1958), Kanpur (1959),

Madras (1960) and Delhi (1961) (Delhi was added on to the original four). After independence,

many educational commissions and committees were established to recommend highly practical

and research oriented recommendations and development plans for technical education in the

country.

1THE ALL INDIA COUNCIL FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION ACT, 1987( ACT NO. 52 OF 1987) An Act to provide for

the establishment of an All India Council for Technical Education with a view to the proper planning and co-ordinated

development of the technical education system throughout the country, the promotion of qualitative improvement of such

education in relation to planned quantitative growth and the regulation and proper maintenance of norms and standards in the

technical education system and for matters connected therewith.

2

In India, engineering education at degree level is provided basically by five categories of

institutions:

Institute of National importance (IITs)

Technical Universities

Regional engineering collages/National Institute of Technology(NITs)

Engineering Department/ colleges in traditional Universities

State level government/private engineering colleges

Engineering Institutes – Intake and Enrollment

There has been a phenomenal growth of technical institutions during the last two decades. The

details of institutions and intake at undergraduate and post-graduate levels in the Engineering

education between the years 2006-07 and 2017-18 have been summarised in the Table 1. As can

be seen, the number of institutions (UG) rose from 1511 in 2006-07 to 3389 in 2014-15. Likewise,

the intake of students increased from 6.59 lakh to 16.93 lakh. However, there was a decrease in

the number of institutes (UG) during the period 2015-16 to 2017-18. It was 3363 in 2015-16 and

3291 in 2016-17. In the current 2017-18 year, the number has further reduced to 3224. Likewise,

there was also a decline in the number of UG students in 2015-16 and the trend continued through

2016-17 and 2017-18. (State-wise institutes, intake, enrollment and placement in engineering

colleges(UG & PG) during the period 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 are given in Annexure-I).

TABLE 1 Engineering Institutes Intake

S.No. Year UG PG UG PG

1 2006-07 1511 979 659717 23100

2 2007-08 1668 981 701214 23147

3 2008-09 2388 993 753910 23431

4 2009-10 2972 1051 1093380 24799

5 2010-11 3222 1272 1219347 30014

6 2011-12 3286 1381 1379149 32585

7 2012-13 3369 1889 1538767 50585

8 2013-14 3384 2132 1620958 178746

9 2014-15 3389 2300 1693771 212070

10 2015-16 3363 2305 1630970 207379

11 2016-17 3291 2235 1556360 197076

12 2017-18 3224 2136 1476608 185910

Source: Report of the AICTE Review Committee, 2015 and Inputs from Ministry of Human Resource Development

3

Chart showing growth of Engineering Education in the country (UG and PG)

Employability

According to a 2016 report by job skills credentialing company Aspire Minds, nearly 80 per

cent of engineering graduates in India are not employable. Most of them are forced to take up jobs

in non-engineering fields or remain unemployed.

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

15111668

2388

29723222 3286 3369 3384 3389 3363 3291 3224

979 981 993 10511272

1381

18892132

23002305 2235 2136

Institutes

UG

PG

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

1400000

1600000

1800000

659717701214753910

1093380

1219347

1379149

15387671620958

16937711630970

15563601476608

23100 23147 23431 24799 30014 32585 50585

178746212070207379197076185910

Intake

UG

PG

4

Two major factors are responsible for this worrying trend. One, the ease of securing

approval from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to set up engineering

colleges has led to the mushrooming of institutes, many of which do not have the right faculty or

the curriculum to train students. Second, the courses being taught are not in tune with the

industry’s requirements, both in product manufacturing and services sectors2. (State-wise position

of placement of students during 2015-16 and 2016-17 is given in Annexure-I).

The Government, through AICTE, has been constantly analysing the standards of education in

the technical education and has been taking measures to impart required skill and knowledge of

specific jobs thereby enhancing their employability through interventions such as :

i) Aligning the syllabus as per the requirements of the industry,

ii) Implementing Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY),

iii) Implementing the Employability Enhancement Training Programme (EETP) in

collaboration with BSNL and,

iv) Implementing the National Employability Enhancement Mission (NEEM) to offer on the

job practical training to enhance employability of engineering graduates.

In addition to it, AICTE has recently signed an MoU with private professional network,

LinkedIn, aiming at outlining the mutual cooperation between AICTE and LinkedIn for helping in

job placement for the students of AICTE approved colleges

Vacant Seats

The filling up of seats in the engineering colleges depends on demand-supply situation

which is attributable to location of the college, level of facilities in the institute and the placement

opportunities. In Under Graduate and Post Graduate courses, 28.48 per cent of seats in

Government Institutes and 53.99 per cent of seats in Private Institutes remained vacant during

2016-17. (State-wise percentage of vacant seats in both Government and Private Institutes during

2016-17 is given in Annexure II (A & B).

The AICTE has implemented different measures to reduce the vacant seats in the

engineering colleges which include (i) rationalizing the procedure to grant Extension of Approval

(EoA), (ii) expansion of the courses and (iii) closure of the institute.

2 The Hindu Business Line dated 11.03.2017.

5

Closure of Institutes

The technical institutes are granted approval subject to fulfilment of norms and standards in

the AICTE Approval Process Handbook. The Institutions, failing to adhere to the prescribed

norms and standards, are liable for punitive actions as provided in the AICTE Approval Process

Handbook3, which includes withdrawal of approval. AICTE permits closure of engineering

colleges on their request subject to fulfillment of norms and guidelines prescribed in AICTE

Approval Process Handbook. The number of institutes granted voluntary closure based on their

requests are -: 73 in 2012-13, 111 in 2013-14, 77 in 2014-15, 125 in 2015-16, 149 in 2016-17, and

66 in 2017-18. (State-wise break-up of closure of Institutes is given in Annexure-III).

Challenges

The capacity constraints of the Government Engineering colleges and institutions to meet

the demands of the industry during successive Five Year Plans had led the Government to allow

and facilitate private sector to set up technical institutions on self-financing basis. This resulted in

the quantitative growth of engineering education in India, increasing opportunities for engineering

aspirants. But maintaining quality in technical education subsequently became a huge issue. The

lack of standards in these institutions and failure to monitor the same by the regulating bodies is

considered as the main factor responsible for this scenario in the country.

Factors leading to poor quality

Shortage of quality faculty.

Inadequate physical infrastructure and funds.

Lack of autonomy.

Rigid and outdated curriculum.

Poor quality of training.

Absence of R & D activities.

Poor learner quality.

Ineffective linkage with industry4.

3 Approval Process Handbook (2017-18) is a Legal Document as per All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987 (52

of 1987) and Section (4.11) of Gazette Policy Regulation No. F.No: AB/ AICTE/ REG/ 2016 of AICTE dated 30 November

2016 Notified on 30 November 2016 in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part-III, Section-4.

Grant of Approval through a single application for the following: Setting up new Technical Institution offering Technical

Programme at Diploma/ Post Diploma/ Degree/ Post Graduate Degree and Post Graduate Diploma Level Change of Site/

Location Closure of Institution Conversion of Women’s Institution into Co-Ed Institution and vice-versa Conversion of

Diploma Level into Degree Level and vice-versa 4 Engineering Education in India: Preparation of Professional Engineering Educators, Atasi Mohanty, Deepshikha Dash;

Journal of Human Resource and Sustainability Studies, 2016, 4, 92-101.

6

Faculty position

The shortage of quality faculty is the most serious problem confronting Indian engineering

education system (State-wise actual and required number of faculty during 2014-15 to 2016-17 is

given in Annexure IV).

Government Initiatives

With a view to improving the standards of technical education and to provide competent

technical manpower for the Make-In-India campaign, the All India Council of Technical

Education (AICTE) has approved the following package of measures to be implemented by all the

technical institutions:

1. Planning: Perspective Plans will be prepared for each State in consultation with the concerned

State Government for assessing the demand-supply situation projected for the next 10 years.

2. Selection: The students for the technical courses shall be selected based on a standardized

examination.

3. Induction training: Every student, on admission, shall be put through a mandatory Induction

training to reinforce the fundamental concepts and the required language skills required for the

technical education.

4. Revision of curriculum: Every affiliating Technical University shall constitute subject-wise

industry consultation committee (ICC) with the mandate of examining the existing curriculum and

for making suitable changes in the curriculum every year.

5. Mandatory internships: Every student in technical institution shall do three internships each

spanning 4 to 8 weeks before completion of the under-graduation.

6. Industry readiness: All students passing out of the undergraduate courses shall be imparted

technical and soft skills required for working in the industry encompassing – managerial skills,

entrepreneurial skills, leadership skills, communication skills, team-working skills and technical

skills.

7. Promoting innovation/start-ups: There shall be efforts at every level for promoting innovation

and creativity in the students. The innovation drives like Hackathon shall be promoted, so that

innovative ideas would emerge that can be incubated in the start-up centres.

8. Exam reforms: The final exams being conducted by the institutions shall test the understanding of

the concepts and the skill – rather than the subject knowledge. A model exam format would be

prepared and shared with the institutions and the technical universities for suitable adoption.

9. Training of teachers: Every teacher in each of the technical education disciplines shall

mandatorily undergo an annual refresher course delivered through SWAYAM portal,

encapsulating all the major advances in the field of their study. Similarly, there should be

leadership training to the heads of the institutions once in 2 years. These trainings would also be

hosted through the SWAYAM platform.

10. Mandatory accreditation: At least half of all the programmes in the technical institutions shall be

accredited through the NBA before 2022. The approval of the institutions can be refused unless

there is credible progress each year5.

5 Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2783 dated 10.08.2017

1

Annexure-I

Engineering Student Data

2

Source: Ministry of HRD, Department of Higher Education (Technical Education) dated

03.11.2017.

3

Annexure-II (A)

ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY(UG,PG) GOVERNMENT INSTITUTES 2016-17

STATE/UT

APPROVED

INSTITUTES

APPROVED

INTAKE ENROLLMENT

% OF VACANT

SEATS

Andaman and Nicobar 1 90 91 0.00

Islands

Andhra Pradesh 16 5238 3303 36.94

Arunachal Pradesh 1 18 0 100.00

Assam 11 2649 2066 22.01

Bihar 16 4178 2834 32.17

Chandigarh 5 1523 968 36.44

Chhattisgarh 8 1930 1109 42.54

Delhi 10 5289 2938 44.45

Goa 1 576 499 13.37

Gujarat 21 12700 11252 11.40

Haryana 18 4891 2693 44.94

Himachal Pradesh 4 900 706 21.56

Jammu and Kashmir 4 1239 1031 16.79

Jharkhand 7 3405 1773 47.93

Karnataka 26 12385 9462 23.60

Kerala 53 17824 13995 21.48

Madhya Pradesh 22 8160 7095 13.05

Maharashtra 30 10856 8945 17.60

Manipur 2 155 122 21.29

Nagaland 1 240 0 100.00

Odisha 9 3126 2703 13.53

Puducherry 2 961 614 36.11

Punjab 9 4097 2233 45.50

Rajasthan 13 5272 3906 25.91

Tamil Nadu 26 11537 9644 16.41

Telangana 14 5114 2496 51.19

Tripura 2 402 247 38.56

Uttar Pradesh 42 9705 6625 31.74

Uttarakhand 11 3172 1784 43.76

West Bengal 26 8264 3211 61.14

Grand Total 411 145896 104345 28.48

Source: Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 153 dated 17.07.2017

4

Annexure-II (B)

ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY(UG,PG) PRIVATE INSTITUTES 2016-17

STATE/UT

APPROVED

INSTITUTES

APPROVED

INTAKE ENROLLMENT

% OF VACANT

SEATS

Andhra Pradesh 317 194530 95244 51.04

Assam 8 3054 1685 44.83

Bihar 17 6156 2580 58.09

Chhattisgarh 43 22692 8041 64.56

Delhi 8 4680 4560 2.56

Goa 4 858 844 1.63

Gujarat 108 63176 29019 54.07

Haryana 133 63010 16809 73.32

Himachal Pradesh 16 7596 1288 83.04

Jammu and Kashmir 5 2214 1671 24.53

Jharkhand 11 4419 1803 59.20

Karnataka 171 101076 71580 29.18

Kerala 121 54113 26562 50.91

Madhya Pradesh 196 101549 41038 59.59

Maharashtra 347 164952 86486 47.57

Meghalaya 1 420 223 46.90

Odisha 88 46952 17262 63.23

Puducherry 16 8790 3096 64.78

Punjab 97 44045 16403 62.76

Rajasthan 118 56339 17084 69.68

Sikkim 1 834 518 37.89

Tamil Nadu 504 302335 147181 51.32

Telangana 277 167208 79754 52.30

Tripura 1 300 172 42.67

Uttar Pradesh 277 142014 46402 67.33

Uttarakhand 25 10512 2709 74.23

West Bengal 70 33716 19651 41.72

Grand Total 2980 1607540 739665 53.99

Source: Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 153 dated 17.07.2017

5

ANNEXURE III

CLOSING OF ENGINEERING INSTITUTES

2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018

State Number of

Institutions

Number of

Institutions

Number of

Institutions

Number of

Institutions

Number of

Institutions

Number of

Institutions

Andaman and Nicobar Islands 0 0 0 0 0 0

Andhra Pradesh 22 27 0 9 4 6

Arunachal Pradesh 0 0 10 0 0 0

Assam 0 0 0 0 0 0

Bihar 0 0 0 0 0 0

Chandigarh 0 0 0 0 0 0

Chhattisgarh 0 0 0 1 2 1

Dadra and Nagar Haveli 0 0 0 0 0 0

Daman and Diu 0 0 0 0 0 0

Delhi 0 0 1 0 1 0

Goa 0 0 0 0 0 0

Gujarat 0 9 3 11 15 1

Haryana 1 8 3 11 16 1

Himachal Pradesh 0 0 0 2 2 0

Jammu and Kashmir 0 0 0 0 0 0

Jharkhand 0 0 0 0 1 0

Karnataka 2 1 2 5 11 2

Kerala 0 0 0 1 4 0

Madhya Pradesh 0 5 5 5 7 4

Maharashtra 3 10 9 19 25 6

Manipur 0 0 0 0 0 0

Meghalaya 0 0 0 0 0 0

Mizoram 0 0 0 0 0 0

Nagaland 0 0 0 0 0 0

Odisha 0 1 0 3 0 2

Puducherry 0 0 0 0 0 0

Punjab 1 2 4 3 6 6

Rajasthan 14 4 5 3 12 10

Sikkim 0 0 0 0 0 0

Tamil Nadu 0 3 12 12 3 4

Telangana 28 27 12 18 14 21

Tripura 0 0 0 0 0 0

Uttar Pradesh 0 14 10 15 21 1

Uttarakhand 0 0 0 4 2 1

West Bengal 2 0 1 3 3 0

Grand Total 73 111 77 125 149 66

Source: Ministry of HRD, Department of Higher Education (Technical Education) dated 03.11.2017.

6

Annexure-IV

Faculty Positions in Engineering Institute

7

Note: (i) Required Faculty Positions depends on Approved Intake granted by AICTE & Faculty Student Ratio.

(ii) Required Faculty includes only regular faculty.

(iii) Actual Faculty includes Regular, Contractual, Ad hoc, Part Time & Visiting.

Source: Ministry of HRD, Department of Higher Education (Technical Education) dated 03.11.2017.

Sources consulted:

1. Statistical Inputs from Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education, (Technical Education) dated

03.11.2017 and12.12.2017.

2. Report of the AICTE Review Committee, 2015, Ministry of HRD.

3. The All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987.

4. All India Council for Technical Education-Approval Process Handbook (2017-18)

5. Engineering Education in India: Preparation of Professional Engineering Educators, Atasi Mohanty, Deepshikha Dash; Journal of Human

Resource and Sustainability Studies, 2016, 4, 92-101; http://file.scirp.org/pdf/JHRSS_2016061714222617.pdf

6. Engineering Education in India, Rangan Banerjee, Vinayak P. Muley; Observer Research Foundation.

7. An Overall Picture of Engineering Institutions in India, shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in

8. The Hindu Business Line dated 11.03.2017

9. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2756 dated 10.08.2017

10. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 77 dated 02.02.2017

11. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1797 dated 01.12.2016

12. Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 153 dated 17.07.2017

13. Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2783 dated 10.08.2017