Engineering Colleges Pressure Government to Increase Computer Science Seats!

The colleges have informed the Chief Minister that there is a growing demand for courses like Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and Data Science. About 125 engineering colleges in the state have proposed to increase the number of seats.

Colleges' Argument:

• High demand for CSE and related fields like AI, Cybersecurity, and Data Science.
• Over half (58%) of students enrolled in CSE last year.
• Many seats remain unfilled in core branches (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical).
• AICTE has already approved increasing CSE seats.

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Decrease in Enrollments Last Year

Last year, 58% of students enrolled in Computer Science and related courses. In contrast, only 5,838 out of 12,751 seats in Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering (45.78%) were filled. In Electrical Engineering, only 2,777 out of 5,051 seats were filled, while Civil had 1,761 out of 4,043 seats, and Mechanical had 1,300 out of 3,657 seats filled. Officials mentioned this in a report sent to the government.

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Government's Concerns:

• Reducing core branch seats could lead to their disappearance.
• Core branches might see future demand.
• New curriculum allows students in core branches to move to software.
• Online courses can bridge the gap between core and software skills.
• Increasing seats would raise fee reimbursement costs for the government.
• Difficulty in finding qualified faculty for new CS-related courses.

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No Reimbursement Needed

According to last year's figures, there are 1.22 lakh engineering seats in the state across all branches. Of these, 82,000 seats are filled under the convenor quota, while the rest are under the management quota. The government has to reimburse the fees for seats filled under the convenor quota. Increasing seats would mean higher reimbursement costs, which is why the government has not permitted a significant increase in seats in recent years.

However, two years ago, AICTE gave the green signal to reduce seats in courses without demand and increase them in courses with demand. The respective universities also need to grant permission for this. Officials believe that increasing seats would not only raise the fee reimbursement budget but also create a shortage of faculty for the new courses. They claim that it will be difficult to find qualified teaching staff for courses like Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, and Data Science for the next four years.

In this context, college managements are proposing to increase non-reimbursement seats. This means that students would have to pay the fees determined by the Fee Regulation Committee for the increased seats, without government reimbursement. Some colleges are already running self-financed courses in this manner, and they suggest that this approach would be beneficial.