India set to witness a rush to set up pharma institutes
India is set to witness a rush to set up pharma institutes. Of the 750 applications received by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) this year for setting up new institutes, about 600 alone are for pharma institutes.
Until last year, majority of applications received were for new engineering institutes. Pharma displaces engineering for which about 150 applications have been made this year.
In addition, maximum applications for closure are from engineering institutes received by AICTE, accounting for 63% of the total 239 institutes that have applied for closure in 2018-19. Second highest applications for closure have come from management institutes, with almost 107 applying for closure this year. Pharma is just a fraction with only seven institutes applying for closure.
“Institutes are looking at closure due to reduction in demand for some technical courses, their inability to meet the norms and standards set by regulators and due to poor quality losing out to competitors,” said a government official, who did not wish to be named. In all, about 1.5 lakh new seats are likely to be added this year in higher education mostly by pharma, engineering and management institutes.
About 60,000 seats are likely to be added by new institutes and the remaining by existing institutes. The new seats would help boost India’s gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education which is at 24.5% (24 of every 100 students are enrolled in higher education for 18-23 years of age group as per MHRD report in 2016-17). This is quite low compared to countries like the US which has GER of 85.80% and China with 43.39%.
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