Technical varsity seeks balanced growth

Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) has urged the state government to take proactive steps to encourage setting up of more colleges in eastern UP, especially in the private sector.

Currently, most of the institutions of higher education are skewed in favour of western UP. “Almost 50 per cent of the enrolments to UPTU-affiliated institutions are being done in Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida and Meerut,” UPTU vice chancellor Prem Vrat told Business Standard.

The government should give incentives to set up colleges in backward and un-served areas of the state, he added. At present, 434 colleges with 250,000 students on roll are affiliated to UPTU. Three years ago, this figure was 236 and 112,000 respectively.

He informed that four new government colleges were coming up in eastern UP, including Azamgarh.

“Almost 20 per cent of students are opting for IT and electronics, while there is a declining interest towards core technologies, such as mechanical and civil, which is not a very healthy trend,” Vrat added. However, he stressed that the quantity of colleges should not be increased at the cost of quality.

“UPTU is following a seven-grade system to rank the affiliated colleges on several parameters and the information is regularly updated on the official website,” the VC said.

UPTU was established by the state government in May 2000. It affiliates institutions imparting graduate, postgraduate and doctoral level training in all government and private institutions all over UP in engineering, technology, architecture, pharmacy, hotel management, and IT.