Enrolment in Engineering Colleges down by more than 20% in 7 years
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
July 6, 2019
Engineering, which was once, a sought after course is witnessing a continuous decrease in demand so much so that the enrolment is down by more than 20% in the last 7 years.
Recently, the debate overthe approval of technical education institutes in India was rekindled amidstreports of dwindling market for engineering. There have been reports sayingAICTE will not be approving new
colleges for engineering from 2020 onwards while pharmacy institutes have
seen a rise.
The total number of technicaleducation institutes has increased from 10,272 in 2012-13 to 10,778 in 2019-20,an increase of 4.9%. But has the trend been the same for each of the programoffered? We take a look at Engineering institutes in this story.
AICTE & Technical
Education Institutes
Technical education in India consists of Engineering and Technology, Management courses, MCA, Pharmacy, Architecture, Planning, Designing, Applied Arts and Craft and Hotel Management and Catering courses in UG, PG and Diploma levels. These courses and institutes offering them are regulated and monitored by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE),  the national-level Apex Advisory Body set up in 1945.
As per the latest data onthe AICTE portal, in the current academic year 2019-20, there are a total of 10,778 institutes in India offering thesetechnical courses with an intake of around 3.25 million. Of this, 6143 areengineering institutes and 2579 are pharmacy institutes with an intake of 2.53million and 2,66,078 respectively.
Number of Institutes:
Engineering & Management down, Pharma up
From the data on thenumber of institutes offering various across years, it can be concluded that whilethe number of institutes offering applied arts and craft, architecture and thatof hotel management and catering have remained more or less the same, thenumber of institutes of management and MCA has come down drastically.
In the case ofengineering, a continuous increase was seen both in the number of institutesand intake up to 2016-17 after which there is a gradual dip. This can beattributed to the reducing demand for these courses. Meanwhile, the demand forpharmacy has gone up considerably. The number of colleges, intake and enrolmentspeak of this. There is a significant increase in the number of institutessince 2016-17, coinciding with the decrease in demand for the other courses. Currently,Tamil Nadu has the maximum number of engineering and
technology institutes in the country with 991 institutes spread across thestate while Uttar Pradesh has the largest number of pharmacy institutes with 770 institutes.
Engineering and
Technology – Enrolment down by more than 20% in 7 years
Asper the latest data available on AICTE website, for the academic year2019-20, the intake has reduced by 1.76 lakh seats compared to 2018-19, adecrease of 6.5%. It has to be noted that on an average, actual enrolmentsaccount for only 55% of the total intake.
In terms of actualenrolment, the situation is much worse. The enrolments in ‘Engineering &Technology’ institutions went down from 17.53 lakh in 2012-13 to 13.84 lakh in2018-19, a reduction of more than 20% in 7 years.
Number of Girls opting
Engineering down 40% in 7 years
The decrease inengineering enrolment was much steeper in the case of girl students. From ahigh of 5.63 lakh girl students who enrolled in 2012-13, the number has droppedto 3.35 lakh in 2018-19, a drop of close to 40%. Of the total students whoenrol for engineering, it is also concerning to note that only 25% of them aregirls. In 2012-13, their share was 32% after which it has decreased to around25%.
The placement data on theAICTE website also doesn’t paint a great picture. Available data suggests thatonly an average of 40 per cent of the total number of engineering graduates isgetting placed. There may of course be students who opt out of placements, buteven then, the total number is much less than desired. The credibility of thisdata is also questionable.
North-West, South-Central
& Western regions see substantial reduction in the number of institutes
The categorisation of theregions has been done as per the AICTE regional committees. The list of statescovered in each region is given in the annual report of AICTE.
The overall decrease inthe number of engineering institutes can be attributed to the steep fall in thenumber of engineering institutes since 2015 in the North-West region (Delhi,Haryana Punjab, Rajasthan etc.), South Central region (Andhra Pradesh &Telangana) and the Western region (Maharashtra & Goa).  Meanwhile, in Eastern (West Bengal, Odisha, NEStates, Jharkhand) and Northern regions (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar &Uttarakhand), there is a stark increase in the engineering institutes. Theother regions witnessed only a slight decrease.
All the numbers discussedabove – reduction in intake, number of colleges, enrolment- depict thedecreasing demand for engineering- which was once the most sought after coursein India. Some of the states where engineering education proliferated in thelast decade are now seeing a reduced demand.
While this is the case with engineering and technology, the trend in pharmacy is totally different. We will look at the numbers related to Pharmacy in another story.
Featured Image: Enrolment in Engineering Colleges