Professional colleges, especially those offering engineering courses sprouted like weeds all over AP over the past couple of decades. While some have stood the test of time, others have only contributed to the state of decadence that we see in professional education today.

Sadly, regulating authorities like the AICTE and the APSCHE remained mute spectators for years. Privately, there was talk about lucre being the chief influencing factor behind permissions and regulating bodies looking the other way on norms and regulations.

It is only over the last two to three years that the AICTE began to crack the whip on professional colleges. It has begun enforcing regulations a tad more strictly than it used to, on salaries to faculty and infrastructure, among other things. As it began to tighten the screws on these institutions, many of them complained as though were being harassed and victimized. In truth, the regulatory bodies such as the AICTE were only asking them to adhere to certain norms strictly.

It appears as though market forces are beginning to determine the quality of education, in that students don’t mind paying the extra few thousand rupees to study in a college of repute. The result is that about one lakh engineering seats are lying vacant after two rounds of EAMCET engineering counseling. A question mark hangs on how many more seats would go abegging in the management quota after the October 31 deadline.

Meanwhile, the AICTE has pre-empted managements from shutting shop by asking them to seek its permission in case they wish to close their institutions down. This is understandable viewed against the fact that 22 engineering colleges have simply no takers for their seats. Andhra Pradesh offers a staggering 3.4 lakh seats in more than 700 engineering colleges. In about a third of these, there have been a fewer a hundred admissions making the study of engineering an unviable option. With the AICTE making it mandatory for them to seek its permission in case they are forced to shut shop, college managements will not be able to sell their properties or even lease them out for other ends.

The government has not made it any easier for college managements by constituting task-forces to inspect the facilities of these institutions in terms of faculty and infrastructure, among other things.

With everything that institutions offering professional education coming under the scanner, the good might be able to buffet the storms of quality control, while the others may fall by the wayside.

Observer@sakshipost