Only 60,000 engineering seats on offer this year

BHOPAL: This year only 60,000 engineering seats will be on offer for admission as the technical education department has decided to reduce seats in engineering courses by 10,000. The admission process is likely to start by the mid of June. Aadhaar has been made mandatory for students seeking admission in such courses.

In the last two years, 16 private engineering colleges in the state have been closed down after seats in them remained vacant. Last year admission were available for around 70,000 seats, but only 45,000 seats were filled up in the end.
Incidentally, technical education department has already announced that no new engineering college will be opened this year in the state.
A senior official told TOI that mushrooming of colleges in the past had forced the department to take such a decision. “We need quality and not the quantity at this point of time. There are around 200 private colleges in the state and they will survive only by providing quality education. When it comes to colleges being shut down , MP is not an exception. Engineering colleges across the country are facing the heat and southern states, where engineering colleges have mushroomed, are also in deep waters”. Concentration of colleges in cities like Bhopal (there are around 90 engineering colleges ) and Indore also forced the department to not allow new colleges for academic session 2018-19. In 2016, colleges surrendered 6,000 seats, fearing shortage of admissionseekers. Sources said that last year around 14,000 seats were reduced in private colleges and admission will be done on around 70,500 seats in both private and government colleges this year.
Notably, directorate of technical education and Madhya Pradesh Universities Private Regulatory Commission had organised a brainstorming session at MP Council of Science and Technology (MPCOST) in 2014 to discuss the reasons behind the poor state of engineering institutes in the state. In a bid to put a curb on multiple admissions by students, Aadhaar has been made mandatory for taking admission in engineering courses across the state this year. Last year, there was an attempt to make Aadhaar mandatory, but it could not be implemented. Sources said the department has received many complaints about multiple admissions by students in colleges during counselling. By making Aadhaar mandatory, multiple admission issue would be fully resolved, officials said.