Engineering seats down by 2152 in colleges affiliated to KTU

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is a decrease of over 2000 undergraduate engineering seats in institutions affiliated to

APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University

in the 2020-21 academic year.


"Number of B.Teach seats in KTU affiliated colleges has come down by 2152. The total B.Tech seats last year were 47268. This has come down to 45116 seats this year'', university sources confirmed.

According to them, there were multiple reasons that had led to the slump in the number of seats available to B.Tech courses. ``A few colleges have decided against admitting new students as the number of students who took admission in those institutes were minuscule last time. Several other colleges have either sought to cut down the number of batches or have surrendered certain engineering branches due to lukewarm response to such courses in the last few years. Among such branches surrendered, Information Technology tops the list. There were several other branches such as electronics that several institutions, especially those in the self-financing sector surrendered this year'', sources in the university added.

The slump in the number of B.Tech seats, however, is likely to have little impact as close to 50 percent of engineering seats remained vacant in 2019. However, the admission figure registered a marginal increase in 2019, compared to the previous years. While 25,500 seats were filled in colleges affiliated to KTU in 2018, the same has marginally increased by 8 percent with the number of occupied seats, zooming past 27,000 in 2019. Even as a large number of self-financing colleges are struggling for survival, there has been a palpable improvement in the academic performance of a handful of engineering colleges in the private sector. A detailed analysis of the B.Tech engineering results announced by KTU last month, three private engineering colleges figured in the top five performing institutions.

Among the 71, 742 candidates appeared for the engineering entrance examination held on July 16, as many as 53, 236 candidates found place in the eligibility list. Self-financing college managements expect a considerable increase in the demand for seats this year as in the case of arts and science seats this year, following the Covid-19 scare and related restrictions that could prompt parents and students to opt for the colleges nearby.


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