Demand for BE seats falls in Andhra Pradesh

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh, the biggest producer of engineers in India, might face a serious shortage of students this year. If the ongoing counselling for admission to engineering colleges is any indication, more than 40 percent seats are expected to remain vacant in various engineering colleges this academic year.Only 1.36 lakh out of 2.07 lakh qualified candidates turned up for verification of certificates during the week-long process which concluded on August 3. About 71,000 stayed away from counselling.Officials expressed concern over this and suspect that at least 1.99 lakh seats may remain vacant due to less students opting for engineering education.In all, there are about three lakh seats in 717 engineering colleges across the state. Of them, 669 colleges with 2.85 lakh seats took part in the counselling and 40 colleges which do not have AICTE or state university clearance were not included in the list.The counselling is being conducted for about two lakh seats under the convener quota.The remaining seats would be filled by college managements under the management quota.“Only 85,000 students gave their options (preferred choice of seats and colleges) till Friday for web counselling. Even if all the students give their options before the process ends on August 8, at least 74,000 seats will remain vacant in the convener quota itself,” pointed out a senior official of the Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE).In addition, there are about 85,000 seats under management quota and sources said that the private college managements could fill only 45,000 seats so far.Officials suspect that most of the top Eamcet rankers have opted for IITs and other national-level engineering colleges, resulting in fewer students turning up for the verification process. They also feel that the ongoing Telangana agitation also had its impact. The academicians attribute the development to declining standards in engineering education, lack of proper infrastructure in colleges and also scarce employment opportunities.