Bengaluru: No takers for 27,000 engineering seats in state this year!

Bengaluru: The demand for engineering courses is on the wane in the State as more than 27,000 engineering seats are lying vacant in government,  aided and private engineering colleges after the fourth round of counselling completed by Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) for admissions to various engineering courses for the academic year 2019-20.

Sources in KEA told this paper that were no takers for 27, 000 engineering seats which shows lack of interest among the students to study engineering courses.

Experts say lack of employability for engineering students in the market-driven world, outdated syllabus, poor communication skills, campus placements, lack of connectivity between academia and industry are some of the reasons for the poor enrollment in engineering colleges.

There has been a poor enrollment to conventional disciplines of engineering such as mechanical, electrical and civil after the closure of six engineering colleges by All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) gained significance in the State.

The AICTE and government of Karnataka were permitted to fill 65,000 seats in 219 engineering colleges across the state for students securing a rank in the Karnataka Common Entrance Examination (KCET) conducted by KEA for admissions to various professional courses.

The fourth round of counseling for engineering colleges including special rounds ended last week. Even after the fourth and final round of seat allotment process was completed, only 38,000 seats were filled up and over 27,000 seats are yet to be filled.

 A total of  22,000 seats were found vacant at the end of the 3rd round of seat allotment for rank holders, but it was increased to 27,000 seats by the end of the special round of counseling much to the surprise of of the officials.

More than 3,000 applicants had withdrawn from the admission process to engineering colleges at the end of fourth round of counseling, officials said.

 The students, who have been allotted final seats, have been asked to report to their respective colleges.

While the seats in the top branches of engineering courses in top ranking colleges with better placement opportunities for courses like electronics and communications have been filled up, students have shown less interest to enroll for traditional courses such as mechanical, computer  science, civil and electrical this year.

Of the 27,000 seats that are vacant, 8,500 seats are lying vacant in mechanical engineering, 5,500 in computer science, 5,000 in civil and 2,000 seats in electrical engineering this year. Officials say this shows interest to pursue engineering courses is on the decline among students in the State.

The problem of vacant seats, particularly in private engineering colleges with lack of campus selection, infrastructure facilities continues to persist.

Sources said many private engineering colleges have reportedly approached the government to conduct another round of counseling to fill up the vacant seats. But its chances appear bleak, officials said.