Thiruvananthapuram: It has become clear after the first round of allotment to engineering, architecture and pharmacy courses conducted by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) that 17,866 seats will remain vacant in self-financing colleges. Only students who pay their fees in the first phase are considered for the next round. Last year, around 13,900 seats allotted through CEE had remained vacant. There are a total of 54,604 seats in engineering colleges in the state. Of them, 36,374 seats are allotted through the CEE, sources said.
The CEE allotted 29,384 seats in the first phase, but fees were paid for 18,509 seats only. Sources said that 9,515 seats that remained vacant were in private self-financing colleges, and the rest in government, aided and government-controlled self- financing engineering colleges. However, the number of vacant seats in private SF colleges is bound to increase as students migrate from these to government, aided and government-controlled SF engineering colleges in the subsequent allotment. The vacant engineering seats in private self- financing colleges may come to around 20,000 once the admissions to management quota seats are also completed, sources said.
The low level of admissions is attributed to the poor pass percentage in some of the self-financing engineering colleges. As a result, students are keen to join only government engineering colleges or reputed self-financing engineering colleges. Many have opted for degree courses in arts and science colleges. The candidates who do not remit the fees lose their allotment as well as all the existing options in the stream to which the allotment is made. The options once lost will not be available in the subsequent phases. In the first phase, the candidates allotted to all courses only need pay the fees.
