Students enrolled in 16 government engineering colleges in Gujarat will miss out on the opportunity to get an additional degree along with the main degree.
Bureaucratic hurdles or short-sightedness, government colleges have failed to opt for Gujarat Technological University (GTU)’s initiative to grant Honours degree for Bachelor of Engineering (BE).
GTU completed the process of selecting 10 colleges that will be able to give a dual degree, the major degree being in core engineering subject and a minor degree in emerging areas, under the New Education Policy.
Experts said the government colleges have to seek permission from the Director of Technical Education for getting grants, infrastructure and teachers for 39 subjects shortlisted from emerging areas of engineering. And the department did not seem to plan it in advance.
Incidentally, all the shortlisted 10 colleges for the BE Honours degree programme are Self-Financed Institutes and colleges. They were selected after stringent checks on various parameters like quality of faculty, available infrastructure, NBA accreditation etc.
A principal of a government medical college said, “For government colleges, the hurdle is that we have to seek permission from DTE. We need budgetary approval to rope in teachers that can teach emerging areas of engineering. GTU gave us a short time to apply and so we missed the bus.”
Principal of another government college said, “Government colleges do not have adequate numbers of teachers in many subjects. Also, GTU demanded a professor and associate professor for teaching emerging subjects. It’s difficult for government colleges to meet these criteria. This also limits our plans to offer multiple courses for a minor degree.”
Yet another principal said it’s not possible for government colleges to seek permission for additional infrastructure like laboratories to start courses in emerging areas in the short time given by GTU. “All these things need prior approval of the education department. In its absence, government engineering colleges and its students will continue to suffer,” the principal said.
Director of Technical Education GT Pandya was not available for comments. GTU V-C Navin Sheth said government engineering colleges must come forward to grab the opportunity.