Students queue up for counselling before engineering admission

The state government on Monday set up a committee to monitor facilities at engineering colleges and recommend action against those with inadequate infrastructure.

“The objective behind the setting up of the panel is to ensure engineering and technology colleges offer quality education,” said Satish Tewary, the principal secretary of higher education.

The committee has five members — two senior officials of the higher education department and three senior teachers of the engineering faculties of Jadavpur University and Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu).

They will conduct surprise inspections of the colleges and inform the government about institutions that are found to be violating norms set by the All India Council for Technical Education, the national body regulating engineering education.

The panel can recommend that the state government ask the council to de-recognise a college violating norms. If it is a private college, the committee can ask the government to recommend that the West Bengal University of Technology de-affiliate a college violating norms.

“It may not be possible to guarantee quality education in all the colleges by monitoring them. But vigilance will certainly check the tendency of some private engineering colleges to not bother about the quality of education they are offering,” said an official.

“The committee will function round the year. The members will be empowered to pay surprise visits to any of the 88 engineering institutions, private as well as government-run, without informing the authorities,” added the official.

The formation of the panel follows complaints by students, guardians and teachers about the quality of engineering education. While most of the complaints are against private engineering colleges, government colleges too have been accused of not having quality teachers and equipment.

“The panel will have the power to seek information from government institutions like Jadavpur University or Besu,” said a source.

If the panel needs to inspect JU or Besu, the government may temporarily replace the three teacher members of the panel with those who teach at other institutions.