Mohan Reddy Committee

Why in news ? 

• A government committee headed by IIT-Hyderabad chairman B V R Mohan Reddyhas submitted its report and that its suggestions are being considered by AICTE.
• The committee was appointed to come up with a medium and short-term perspective plan for expansion in engineering education.

 Important recommendations made by the committee:

• Stop setting up new colleges from 2020and review the creation of new capacity every two years after that.
• No additional seats should be approved in traditional engineering areassuch as mechanical, electrical, civil and electronics and institutes should be encouraged to convert current capacity in traditional disciplines to emerging new technologies.
• For approving additional seats in existing institutions, the AICTE should only give approvals based on the capacity utilisation of concerned institute.
• Introduce undergraduate engineering programmes exclusively for artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, quantum computing, data sciences, cybersecurity and 3D printing and design.

What necessitated this?

• More than half the engineering seats fall vacant every year. There were no takers for 51% of the 15.5 lakh B.E/B.Tech seats in 3,291 engineering colleges in 2016-17.
• Besides, current capacity utilisation in traditional disciplines is just 40%as opposed to 60% seat occupancy in branches such as computer science and engineering, aerospace engineering and mechatronics.
• There were 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 technical ecosystem to nurture the classroom. All this accounted for low employability of graduates.
• While committee headed by Reddy has recommended no new engineering institutes should be set up from 2020, it has said that concessions should be made for applications already in the pipeline.
• As for approving additional seats in existing institutions, the committee has suggested that the AICTE should only give approvals based on the capacity utilisation of concerned institute.