Freeze on new SF colleges

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Kochi: To arrest the slide in standards, the state government has issued orders declaring a moratorium on issuing No-objection Certificate to new self-financing engineering colleges for the year 2013-14.
The decision came as ne-arly one-third of the total engineering seats fell va-cant last time – numbering over 18,000 seats, leading to a situation called ‘predatory pricing’ in the sector.
Predatory pricing is a situation wherein one engineering college charges a fee of Rs 25,000 while another undercuts it to Rs 20,000 to attract students. “Kerala is witnessing such a ph-enomenon, which will lead to an under-pay for the faculty. This is the only area where the managements can become stingy, to stave off losses, as and when seats fall vacant,” sources said.
An official said the number of M.Tech-holders being produced by the state is lim-ited and hence there was the need to limit the number of engineering colleges to ensure quality faculty. “Only 40 per cent of the colleges currently meet the AICTE requirements rega-rding faculty in engineering colleges and it’s high time the measures are tig-htened to force the rest to meet the norms,” he said.
The decision not to grant NOC has been taken as advised by an expert committee headed by higher education principal secretary KM Abraham. The committee was formed following the passing of severe strictures by the Kerala high court on the poor state of engineering education in the state.