New Delhi: At least 1,000 underperforming rural engineering colleges affiliated with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) are set to undergo a major revamp aimed at improving teaching quality, fostering innovation, and boosting employability—impacting over 5 lakh students and 10,000 faculty members.
The AICTE, in collaboration with the Centre for Research in Schemes and Policies (CRISP), a policy think tank, LEAP—an IIT Madras initiative promoting hands-on, project-based engineering education—and the Maker Bhavan Foundation, a US-based nonprofit working on STEM education in Indian colleges, has launched an initiative called Project for Advancing Critical Thinking Industry Connect and Employability (PRACTICE).
According to AICTE officials, the project, costing Rs 23 crore and funded equally by the Council and its practice partners, aims to transform technical education through interventions such as updated pedagogy, faculty development programmes, project-based learning, innovation, industry connect, and mentorship by reputed academicians.
The scheme aims to double the average employment rate in participating institutions by 2028.
“The project was proposed by our PRACTICE partners in this scheme. The basic aim is to upgrade over 1,000 colleges that are currently at the bottom in terms of student performance and employability. Through this scheme, we want students to develop critical thinking and gain industry exposure, and we also aim to train faculty in innovative pedagogy,” a senior AICTE official told ThePrint.
In the first phase of the project, over 500 colleges have been shortlisted across various states and union territories in India. The highest number is from Tamil Nadu (128), followed by Kerala (60), Haryana (43), Andhra Pradesh (41), Telangana (36), Punjab (33), Uttar Pradesh (31), Maharashtra (29), Gujarat (25), Karnataka (17), Odisha (16), Uttarakhand (11), West Bengal (11), among others.
Project goals
According to a document prepared by PRACTICE partners, at least 85 percent of engineering institutions, primarily located in rural areas, are struggling with outdated curricula, and weak industry linkages.
In their analysis, the PRACTICE partners found a major “employability gap”. “As per recent studies only about half of India’s youth are deemed employable, with significant deficits in emerging fields like AI, data science, and cloud computing. Many graduates lack essential practical and professional skills due to traditional, rote-based learning methods and limited practical exposure,” the document stated.
“It has also been found that there is a disconnect between academia and industry, leading to limited internship opportunities and inadequate real-world training, especially in smaller cities. Studies show that only 20-25 percent of technical institutions have meaningful industry tie-ups, restricting internships and experiential learning, particularly in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities,” R. Subrahmanyam, former education secretary and CRISP CEO, told ThePrint.
Therefore, the project was envisioned to address these gaps. “Since we are aiming for a significant leap in growth, we felt it was essential to first address this issue—by making engineering education more productive and practice-oriented,” he said.
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Project implementation
The project will adopt a comprehensive, hands-on approach to improve teaching quality and student outcomes across underperforming rural engineering colleges.
Over 10,000 faculty members from 1,000 colleges will be trained in interdisciplinary, practice-based teaching methods. A structured mentor-mentee model will be introduced, where 50 mentor institutions will train faculty from 950 mentee colleges through 5-day immersive sessions, with certification from IIT Madras.
“We would like to work with top 50 institutions to mentor at least 1000 of the lowest-performing colleges and assist them in addressing performance gaps. These institutions can adopt the identified colleges and allow them to access their innovation infrastructure. This can function as a hub-and-spoke model, where the top-performing institutions act as hubs to support and uplift the spokes—the lower-performing colleges,” Subrahmanyam said.
“A project formulated for this purpose has been approved by AICTE on an equal funding basis. IIT Bombay alumni, settled in the US, led by Hemant Kanakia are contributing 50 percent of the project cost. The project is expected to be launched in September.”
Additionally, a 10-day residential Innovation faculty program at IIT Jammu will focus on areas such as design thinking, prototyping, IP filing, and innovation mentoring to help faculty embed creativity and industry relevance in their teaching.
On the student side, four-day intensive bootcamps will be conducted for 200 students per institute (in four batches of 50), offering hands-on experience with real-world engineering challenges. Further, eight-week project-based programmes will engage 40 students per institute in developing innovative solutions while strengthening technical and soft skills.
For more advanced learners, another programme will offer eight-week deep-dive, technology-driven projects for 20 students per institute, focused on solving specific industry challenges.
Under the project, institutions will transition from short-term internships to comprehensive six-month programmes that span an academic semester and the summer. This shift aims to provide students with a more immersive, real-world experience.
“For industry partners, these extended internships offer a valuable opportunity to thoroughly assess student capabilities before hiring, helping to reduce recruitment risks, improve employee retention, and lower hiring costs,” the project document stated.
The AICTE will continuously monitor the scheme and evaluate its impact after three years. “The scheme was approved by AICTE last month, and we expect that many colleges in rural areas will particularly benefit from it over the next three years,” an AICTE official said.
A national steering committee, chaired by the AICTE chairperson, will monitor overall progress through quarterly meetings, the official added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)