Monday, June 6 2005 20:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Students aspiring for technical education like engineering, MBA and MCA might have to bear the brunt of acute shortage in faculty which has forced the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to slash over 38,000 seats this year.

A maximum of 25,335 seats have been curtailed in the engineering course from 4,77,595 in 2004/05 to 4,52,260 seats in 2005/06, an official release said today (Jun 6, 2005).

The AICTE, which has been mandated to ensure maintenance of standards with regard to technical education, is saddled with the problem of faculty shortage both in terms of quantity and quality, lack of academic leadership on account of absence of qualified principals and poor remuneration of teachers.

The gravity of the situation has forced it to reduce intake of students in the MBA/PGDBM course by 3,016 from 75,048 in 2004/05 to 72,032 seats in 2005/06.

Similarly, in MCA the seats have been brought down by 8,229 from 56,766 last year to 48,537 this year.

Likewise, pharmacy seats have been cut by 1,521 from 26,890 to 25,369 during the period, it said.

"Seven out of 1,346 colleges of engineering, 18 out of 1,007 institutes in management, 65 out of 1,051 colleges in MCA and eight out of 445 colleges in pharmacy cannot admit students unless they rectify the faculty deficiencies by July 7, 2005", it said adding that the reduction could be proportionately restored if the institution was able to recruit more faculty before the deadline.