Karnataka’s Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar has announced that the government is contemplating revisions to technical education regulations. These changes aim to address the significant increase in student enrollment in private university engineering programs, a situation the minister described as “unscientific.” According to Minister Sudhakar, these proposed rules would serve two key purposes. Firstly, they would aim to curtail the expansion of private universities in major urban centers. Secondly, they would seek to prevent the conversion of core engineering disciplines into computer-related programs without prior authorization from the government.
According to Minister Sudhakar, these potential amendments are part of a broader effort to address the challenges posed by private universities in the state. These institutions have been rapidly increasing their student intake and introducing new engineering courses without a robust rationale, often citing a supposed demand for such programs. It’s important to note, however, that this surge in enrollment doesn’t necessarily lead to better employability for graduates. Furthermore, the proposed rule changes intend to address the unchecked proliferation of engineering colleges in tier 1 cities. This unchecked growth is having a detrimental impact on the existence and sustainability of colleges in tier 2 and 3 cities.
The state government identified approximately 90 colleges that bypassed the government and obtained approval for new engineering courses directly from Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) and the AICTE. According to the established procedure, VTU should dispatch a local inquiry committee to assess the colleges and grant course approval. Subsequently, AICTE approval and a no-objection certificate from the government are required. However, the government declined to issue certificates to numerous colleges because they lacked VTU’s inquiry reports.