AP to curtail engg colleges

Hyderabad: After Telangana, now Andhra Pradesh government is planning to curtail number of engineering colleges in the State. According to Andhra Pradesh Human Resource Development minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao that a decision was taken in the cabinet meeting to grade engineering colleges in the State.

• Grading for colleges
• Govt plans to improve engineering education

The minister said that government will rate the engineering colleges based on the standard of education, facilities and faculty. “The colleges will be given A, B, C grading. Grade A for colleges which have adequate facilities and B grade colleges will be served with a notice to improve the infrastructure. However, colleges with C grade will be shut down,” the minister informed.

The move comes from the government to improve engineering education in the State. Officials of Technical Education Department say that with the government giving subsidy engineering colleges have mushroomed in the State. Officials’ further say that the government is of the view that by scaling down engineering, it will lessen the burden on State exchequer.

Another reason which Higher Education Department official cited was fee reimbursement. “Colleges have increased to double digits in every district with assurance of fee reimbursement to students. Now with the grading, the colleges number is likely to come down,” an official of higher education, informed. The government is seriously planning to improve technical education and increase employability among the engineering graduates, the official added.