To deal with the diminishing interest in MTech courses, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), India’s technical education regulator, has mooted a hike in the postgraduate scholarships given to students.
It has proposed to the Ministry of Education that the amount be hiked by 50% from the existing amount of Rs. 12,400 per month.
The AICTE first wrote to the Ministry in June last year requesting that the scholarship amount for postgraduate students be increased to a minimum of Rs. 18,600, which is a proposed hike of 50%. This communication noted that the last increase was notified by the Ministry in 2015. A reminder in the matter was sent to the Ministry along with other recommendations including proposals for financial support, in early March this year.
In a communication dated February 18, 2015, the Ministry wrote to the AICTE, and institutions including IITs, NITs, and IISERs, informing them of the revision in scholarship rates in AICTE approved and Centrally Funded Technical Institutions for PhD and MTech/ME programmes. For MTech programmes, the scholarship was hiked from Rs. 8000 to Rs. 12,400 per month. Based on what was then a roughly 50% increase, the AICTE has requested for a similar 50% hike this time, sources said.
MTech Crisis
In its communication to the Ministry in June last year, the AICTE referred to decreasing enrolments in postgraduate engineering and technology programmes in AICTE-approved institutions.
The approved intake for postgraduate engineering and technology courses fell from 1.81 lakh in 2018-19 to around 1.30 lakh in 2023-24, AICTE data referred to in the communication shows. Over this period, enrolment fell from around 66,862 (63% of seats were vacant in 2018-19), to a little over 44,000 (66% of seats vacant in 2022-23).
AICTE also referred to a drop in the total number of postgraduate students admitted under the scholarship scheme – this figure has more than halved from 11,926 in 2018-19 to 5176 in 2022-23.
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For scholarships for postgraduate engineering courses, the student needs to have qualified in the GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) exam. The scholarship is meant for students admitted to AICTE-approved postgraduate programmes, and in AICTE-approved institutions. The number of scholarships will be limited to the AICTE-approved intake for the course. Students who receive financial assistance from other sources, or “sponsored candidates” and candidates admitted through the management quota are not eligible for the scholarship.
In addition to requesting for a hike in the scholarship amount, AICTE has also asked that the postgraduate scholarships be granted to graduate students from AICTE-approved institutions who have a CGPA score of 8.5 or above, without having to appear for the GATE exam.
Referring to an expert committee meeting held by the AICTE in May last year, the communication stated that the experts “recommended” that the scholarship amount of Rs. 12,400 per month is “rock bottom”, and hence, the AICTE may request the Ministry of Education to increase the amount. It also pointed out that the amount for Junior Research Fellows (JRF) and Senior Research Fellows (SRF) was increased in 2023 from Rs. 31,000 to Rs. 37,000 (JRF), and from Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 42,000 (SRF) per month.
Sources in the AICTE said that the dipping enrolment in MTech courses has been a cause for concern, with the postgraduate degree being important when it comes to teaching jobs in engineering. For the waning interest, they pointed to reasons including students choosing to work soon after a BTech or going abroad for higher studies.
