Bhubaneswar: Private engineering colleges in Odisha are going bust in a big way. As many as 37 out of 90 engineering colleges functional in the State will face progressive closure in 2020-21. The colleges dot across the State ranging from Rayagada to Berhampur, Sambalpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jharsuguda and Bhubaneswar etc.
As per highly placed sources in the AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education), though, a high of 50 private engineering colleges in the State have an enrollment rate of around or below 30 per cent for five consecutive academic sessions, around 37 of them will go for progressive closure in 2020-21.
Progressive closure means asking the colleges not to enroll new batches, but earlier batches could complete the courses. Since the colleges fail to comply the AICTE norm, sources said AICTE has directed them not to go for fresh intake from the academic year 2020-21.
Moreover, AICTE has issued a direction that no permission would be given for setting up new engineering colleges in the State from year 2020.
Such a situation warranted when vacancies in engineering colleges in the State touched a high of around 80 per cent in 2017-18 from 51 per cent in 2012-13.
As per the statement tabled in Assembly, the vacancies in 2019-20 stood at around 61 per cent of the intake capacity. When enrollments in private colleges dipped by around 50 per cent, it fell by around 8 per cent even in Government-run engineering colleges. The salient point for government engineering colleges is vacancies stood at mere 13 per cent.
Why such a scenario on the horizon? A fast dip in enrollments in private engineering colleges has a context to it. It is the reduced placements over years that has led to this fall.
Consider this. When around 49 per cent of enrolled students could find a job in 2013-14, the proportion diminished to around 40 per cent in 2018-19. Even, placements in Government-run colleges dipped to around 40 per cent of enrolments in 2018-19 against 50 per cent in 2013-14. These stats show how reduced placements for engineering pass-outs had a role in brewing the current crisis in the State.
According to the National Employability Report-2019 by Aspiring Minds, Odisha is nowhere in the top- 5 employability (means having talent to find a job) rank of engineering graduates.
The report listed Delhi at the top in IT services employability followed by Bihar and Jharkhand. Odisha ranked at 12th position. The State also doesn't figure in the top-10 employability hubs in the category of IT products.
More engineering colleges a bane for Odisha? The following comparative analysis suggests so.
Odisha has around 93 colleges having 31,174 seats, but is in the bottom in employability index. Delhi, which topped the country with most talented engineers, have a mere 18 colleges having around 16,000 seats.