Jaipur / Of 139 engineering colleges in Rajasthan, 16 in ‘top category’

Hindustan Times : Sep 13, 2019, 11:15 AM
Despite the government claims of improvements in technical education in Rajasthan, there seems a little progress on the front with only 16 engineering colleges making it to the top category in the qualitative analysis of the technical education for 2018-19.

The analysis for listing the technical colleges in various categories is carried out as per the parameters indicated in the Quality Index Value (QIV). The colleges are the divided into category A, B and C considering parameters such as infrastructure and facilities.

In the category list presented by the state government as an answer to a question in the Rajasthan state assembly said that presently there are 139 engineering colleges and institutes in the state. Out of these 139, 11 are government institutions, 126 are private engineering colleges and two others constituent colleges of technical universities.

Out of 139, 12 colleges from the Rajasthan Technical University and four from the Bikaner Technical University have made it to the list of ‘A’ category institutes. None of the government colleges made it to ‘A’ category out of the 16 colleges. Moreover, out of these 16, 10 are private institutions from Jaipur, three from Alwar, two are from Udaipur and one from Jodhpur. The top QIV score attained was 951.

The category of the colleges is often taken as a reference by the students seeking admissions in various colleges of the state.

Apart from the engineering colleges, four institutes of management studies have been categories under ‘A’ which are affiliated from BTU. However, the list attained did not mention any management institute with ‘A’ category from RTU.

In master of computer Application (MCA) course, two institutes from RTU and one institute affiliated to BTU made it to the top category. In architecture course, one college from RTU and none from BTU attained ‘A’ categories.

Technical experts said that less number of colleges making it to ‘A’ category is because the technical education in the state is still not focused on outcome based education.

“There is no limit as to how many engineering or technical colleges can open in a state. Therefore, such institutes are mushrooming giving ease of education to the students with no guarantee of good education. The QIV is one of the best parameters to judge the colleges in the state which has the most weightage of marks with National Board of Accreditation (NBA) certificate. Since the NBA focuses on ‘outcome based education’ rather than ‘facility based education’, engineering branches of many colleges fail to receive the certificate,” said Puneet Sharma, Technical education expert.

“If the government colleges apply and receive an NBA certificate they might get better score in the QIV. The government should consider making the NBA certificate compulsory for at least, government colleges,” added Sharma.

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