Punjab's professional education takes a hit as seats remain vacant

Chandigarh: Courses in management, engineering, hotel management and pharmacy may be the most sought after in other places but thousands of seats in these streams are going begging in the progressive state of Punjab.

Private technical institutions in the state are saying that nearly 45 per cent of the seats — 26,000 out of the total 60,000 seats in most sought-after streams — are lying vacant in leading institutions.

"This is resulting in a loss of hundreds of thousands of rupees annually to these institutions and to the state government as the seats are not being filled. The Punjab government is unable to match up to the liberal policies being followed by states like Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan in attracting students and investment in the education field," said Anshu Kataria, chairman of the Aryans Group, a leading institution in management and other courses near Chandigarh.

With the global economic meltdown showing signs of recovery and courses, especially in the management stream, generating interest among students, institutions in Punjab offering such courses were also hopeful of a revival.

But that has not happened as in management courses alone, 11,300 seats out of a total 25,000 are lying vacant.

"More than 26,000 seats out of 60,000 are lying vacant in various private unaided technical institutions of Punjab. Ninety-five per cent of the colleges in Punjab are private and if the state government does not take immediate steps to bail out these colleges, they will not be able to impart education," J.S. Dhaliwal, president of Punjab Unaided Technical Institution Association, said here.

Chairmen from leading educational groups from all over Punjab held a meeting here on Sunday to discuss the issue.

IIT campus moves to Jodhpur

The Indian Institute of Technology, Rajasthan (IIT-R), which has been operating from the IIT Kanpur campus for the past two academic sessions, is set to move to Jodhpur.

According to an IIT official, the Human Resources Development Ministry has identified around 700 acres along the Jodhpur-Nagaur road in Rajasthan for setting up IIT-R.

However, till the new campus is ready to start its operations, IIT-R will function from a Jodhpur-based government engineering college affiliated to the Jai Narain Vyas University, also in Jodhpur, the official added.