In a shocking revelation of the poor standard of academic policy monitoring at the prestigious National Institutes of Technology (formerly Regional Engineering Colleges), the CAG has found that between 2005 and 2010, admission of students to five most sought-after branches of engineering in NITs remained much below the intake capacity of these institutes.

In the performance audit of these colleges since the NIT Act came into force in 2007, the CAG examined academic activities and research output of 10 NITs in Jalandhar, Kurukshetra, Bhopal, Calicut, Durgapur, Nagpur, Silchar, Surthakal and Warangal and found that 1.38 to 42.31 per cent of UG seats in civil, electronics and communication, mechanical, chemical and IT engineering branches remained vacant during the period of study, while 3.13 to 87 per cent of seats in PG courses in the said branches remained vacant.

It was also observed that most of the new courses were introduced without ascertaining their need. NIT Durgapur and Silchar introduced two new UG courses during 2009-2010 wherein 37 and 10 seats constituting 62 per cent and 33 per cent of the total intake capacity went unfilled. In 12 new PG courses introduced during 2006 and 2009 by NIT Kurukshetra, Bhopal, Silchar and Surthakal, 52 to 83 per cent seats remained unfilled.

NIT Kurukshetra admitted in January 2011 that the PG seats remained vacant due to high demand of civil engineers in jobs and less sponsorship of MTech students in civil courses. On research output, the report paints a grim picture showing that NIT Kurukshetra and Calicut undertook 60 research projects in the period of study but completed just 27.

In NIT Jalandhar, Rs 20 lakh grant was received in 2005 from the HRD Ministry for research on evaluation of in-cylinder combustion of bio-diesel. The same was to be completed by 2008 but no study was ever conducted.

The Director, NIT Jalandhar, admitted that there had been lapses in monitoring of research projects. NIT Jalandhar applied for 12 patents but got just one; NIT Kurukshetra applied for five and got three.

Source: The Tribune