The raging Covid-19 pandemic😷 has given a serious blow to India’s higher education sector.
The tough employment scenario, restrictions on students’ mobility, and decreasing fee-paying capability😔 of students’ families have eventually resulted in the closure of many higher education institutes.
According to data📃 released by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), at least 179 professional colleges, including engineering colleges🏢 and business schools, shut down in the country in the academic year 2020-21.
This figure is twice the number of the previous academic year and more importantly, the highest in the past nine years😮.
Notably, besides these closures, 134 more institutions did not seek approval for fresh batches in 2020🗓️.
Meanwhile, 762 institutions reduced⤵️ the intake of students because of closure of courses and depts.
On the whole, the above-mentioned factors have brought down the number of technical education seats by over 1.5 lakhs😱.
Had no other option
The problems of these higher education institutions had been compounded by the fact that the authorities restricted them✋ from demanding full fees from students in view of the closure of the physical campuses.
However, apart from paying full salary to their staff, they had also been required to create new digital infrastructure to provide virtual education👨🏻💻 to their students.
While the bigger institutions have successfully managed in this situation, a lot of tier 2 and tier 3 town institutions being unable to do the same😣, eventually decided to shut down their operations.