WHY ARE B.TECH SEATS GOING VACANT AT AKTU?

The state university has reduced seats and changed its entrance test to improve standards. Despite vacant seats, UP government is setting up 6 more colleges.

- Sanjay

APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University (AKTU) in Uttar Pradesh changed its admisA sion process and reduced the number of seats to improve standards. Despite this, B.Tech seats are going vacant in institutions affiliated to it.

Teachers blame the "disturbed academic cycles", the "low-quality infrastructure and labs" and outdated curriculum in many institutions. Students believe that the locations of many of the colleges in tier-three cities and semi-urban towns are a serious disadvantage. Taken together, these factors have impacted admissions at one end, and placements at the other. According to the Times of India, in 2022-23, AKTU colleges had just 30,000 registered candidates for the roughly 70,000 seats left after several poorly-resourced engineering colleges shut, culling thousands of seats.

In this situation, the UP government is building six new engineering colleges across the state.

AKTU and engineering education

Formerly Uttar Pradesh Technical University, AKTU was established by the state government in 2000. AKTU affiliates state colleges offering technical education programmes including engineering, pharmacy and architecture. 183 private and 15 government colleges affiliated to AKTU offer B.Tech courses; 73 private and seven government colleges offer M.Tech programmes.

Not one AKTU college made it to the top 100 engineering colleges in the government's National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2022. The private Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology, Noida, ranked at 145 and another five colleges, between 187 and 300.

Plus, its vice chancellor (VC) Pradeep Kumar Mishra was suspended for "financial irregularities" and "corruption" in February 2023 and its registrar, Sachin Kumar Singh, in March 2023. Alok Kumar Rai, VC of University of Lucknow, has additional charge of AKTU.

Empty seats, JEE Main