Mohan Reddy Committee Recommendations Accepted

• 19 Jan 2019

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has accepted the recommendations of the committee headed by BVR Mohan Reddy.

• The committee was set up to provide Short and Medium Term Perspectives for Engineering Education.

Committee Recommendations

• No new engineering institutes should be allowed to set up from 2020.
• Concessions should be made for applications already in the pipeline.
• Only requests from existing engineering institutes to either start programmes in new technologies or convert current capacity in traditional engineering disciplines to emerging new technologies like artificial intelligence or robotics should be entertained.
• Creation of new capacity in colleges should be reviewed every two years.
• Committee found that the current capacity utilization in traditional disciplines is just 40% as opposed to 60% seat occupancy in branches such as computer science and engineering, aerospace engineering and mechatronics.
  • The committee had urged the AICTE to introduce undergraduate engineering programmes in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, the blockchain, robotics, quantum computing, data sciences, cybersecurity, 3D printing, and design.
• The committee found that the innovation, incubation, and start-up ecosystem is lacking in educational Institutions. Thus, every education Institution should be mandated for the following:
  • Entrepreneurship should be a minor elective for Undergraduates.
  • Tinkering Laboratories similar to Atal Innovation Laboratories to be in every educational Institution.
  • Educational Institutions need to set up incubation centers, mentoring clubs, and accelerator programs.
• As for approving additional seats in existing institutions, the committee has suggested that the AICTE should only give approvals based on the capacity utilization of concerned institute.

Background

• Over the last couple of decades primarily in the post-liberalization phase, India faced the challenge of meeting the fast-growing demand of skilled workforce emanating from various key sectors of the economy.
• Since the requirement could have been met only through widening the infrastructural base of the education sector by increasing the number of specialized technical institutions, the country went into institution overdrive.
• The government took the lead by setting up several technical institutions. The policy continued unabated for about two decades, without any meaningful appraisal or evaluation of institutions being established, resulting in mushrooming of engineering institutions.
• In 2003, the UR Rao committee had warned of the rise in the number of engineering colleges and suggested that a five-year moratorium on approving undergraduate technical institutions be put in force in states where the annual student intake exceeded the national average of 150 per million population.
• A 2017 study by Aspiring Minds found that 95% of engineering graduates were unemployable for the software industry, which accounts for the bulk of engineering jobs.
• In December 2017, an investigation by The Indian Express has found there were no takers for 51% of the 15.5 lakh B.E/B.Tech seats in almost 3,200 engineering colleges in 2016-17.
• The investigation found glaring gaps in regulation, including alleged corruption; a vicious circle of poor infrastructure, labs, and faculty; non-existent linkages with industry and the absence of a technology ecosystem to nurture the classroom. All this led to low employability of graduates.