Engineering and polytechnic colleges throughout Maharashtra are transitioning from traditional courses to modern, innovative programs. A recent government resolution approved the reduction of intake in about 43 institutions, decreasing over 1,700 seats for engineering diplomas. Conversely, around 66 institutions have been granted permission to introduce new-age courses, leading to an increase of 2,000 seats.
In total, this year the government has approved 15,000 seats for engineering which increases the intake of engineering colleges across the state to 1,55,000 from 1,40,000 last year, stated a government official from the technical education.
An officer also pointed out that 5,000 seats have also increased for polytechnic courses for the upcoming academic year. The official government resolution detailing these changes will be released in a timely manner. On Wednesday the government published various resolutions about the approval and closure of the courses in the institutions. As per the government resolution, around 13 institutions closed civil engineering diploma courses, and 12 shut mechanical engineering diploma courses. Whereas 14 out of 66 institutions got approval to start new intake to run new age courses like Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML).
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“In the last three years, the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) promoted new-age courses like AI, ML and data science, and many universities in the state started these courses, attracting more students in engineering again,” said Professor Suresh Ukarande, principal, K J Somaiya College of Engineering. He further added that considering the competition in the medical field and the new age opportunities in the field of engineering, more students shpuld be attracted to pursue engineering.
Colleges are also planning to reduce the number of vacancies to match the income and expenses. A principal from a Thane-based college said, “We reduced 50% seats from the civil engineering stream which we saw as vacant in the last five years which impacted our income and expenditure. This year we shifted those seats to AI-based courses that will attract students and also help us to manage the financial side of the institute.”
Registration for the diploma courses is on for students till July 18 on the directorate of technical education portal. The engineering centralized admission process (CAP) will be announced soon by the common entrance test (CET) cell.
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