Over 29K engineering seats remain vacant in Karnataka this year

Bengaluru, Aug 26: A whopping 37% of the engineering seats in private, government and aided colleges, bagged by students through the Common Entrance Test or the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) route have gone unfilled this year. To be precise, over 29,000 of the 77,500 available engineering seats in Karnataka remained vacant in 2017. 

These figures do not include management quota seats in private colleges. Of the 62,000 government and government-quota seats allotted through the CET, nearly 19,000 are vacant, while over 10,000, of the total 15,500 seats allotted through the COMEDK route, are vacant. Last year too a similar number of seats went vacant.

K. Rajinikanth, former principal, MSRIT, attributed the vacancies to the fact that engineering was slowly losing its charm. In his opinion, placements even in good colleges were not up to the mark. Demand is likely to reduce further in the coming years, he said, and pointed out to the fact that currently supply outstrips demand.

“Several colleges with low intake would have a challenge even running the colleges.”

K. Mallikarjun Babu, principal of BMS College of Engineering, however, said engineering colleges were facing a problem after the advent of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) as many students tend to give up their engineering seats after getting through medical and dental admissions. “Vacant seats in engineering colleges have become a national phenomenon; there is a need for different stakeholders to analyse this process,” said Mr. Babu.

M.R. Jayaram, chairman of the Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation, said there was a need for the government to come up with a policy decision to protect the interests of college managements.