28 colleges marked for closure in state: AICTE

“Except for six colleges flagged for deficiencies by the AICTE in a string of surprise inspections in the state, the rest had opted for a voluntary closure,” he pointed out. “The random, surprise inspections were carried out on 311 institutions across the country, of which 41 are from Tamil Nadu. The inspections revealed minor to major discrepancies in as many as 189 colleges of which 168 institutions had assured they would rectify the defects in their institutions. 

Following the inspection, AICTE had reduced the intake in 83 colleges, directing 49 colleges not to admit students this academic year, and ordered one college to close, while one college volunteered to close. The institutions barred from intake of students this year would have to rectify the issues they have been pulled up for,” the AICTE chairman revealed. MGR Film Institute, which is among 22 institutions which had opted for closure of courses offered, downed curtains on the D.F.Tech (Visual Arts) since it had been offering B.F.Tech in the same stream from the past academic year. The five other engineering colleges which were part of this voluntary closure are from Puducherry, Namakkal, Chennai, Avinashi, and Tiruvannamalai.

AICTE has approved one new engineering college which adds 300 seats to the tally of about 2.5 lakh engineering seats available this year. Last year a total of about 1 lakh engineering seats were vacant in state, and this led to the surrender of nearly 20,000 seats from several institutions. As many as eight Pharmacy, four polytechnic, and four Post-Graduate-Diploma-in-Management(PGDM) institutions were permitted to run courses from this academic year.