9 engg colleges could get only 1 student

COMEDK QUOTA

9 engg colleges could get only 1 student

51 Could Not Fill Even 25% Seats

SruthySusan.Ullas@timesgroup.com

Beng aluru:05.03.2021 

Is there a high demand for seats in private engineering colleges in Karnataka? Well, data pertaining to seats under the ComedK (Consortium of medical, engineering and dental colleges - Karnataka) show there have been not many takers this admission season. Sample this: Nine engineering colleges could find only one student each in the ComedK quota while four others could get only two students each.

In a detailed list of a number of seats available and filled under the ComedK quota in colleges, it is only RV College of Engineering that has succeeded in filling up 96 per cent of the seats. Three other colleges –– National Institute of Engineering, BMS College of Engineering and MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology –– had more than 80% of their seats under the quota filled.

As many as 51 colleges could not fill even 25% of their quota; 35 of them had 10 or less than 10 students. Three of these colleges had more than 125 seats and one of them close to 200. Twenty colleges had seats between 25% and 50% filled. Another 16 colleges had filled at least 50% of the seats.

Pandemic effect

TOI had earlier reported that 69% of the ComedK seats are vacant this year. Of the total 15,020 seats, only 4,711 were filled. The dip this year has been attributed to the non-Karnataka students keeping off due to pandemic fear. Civil and mechanical engineering were the branches that were the most affected.

“Managements need to invest in colleges. They can attract students only if there is a wider vision and work towards improving quality. For many colleges, the fee is so low that they’re even unable to recruit qualified faculty. Covid has come as a double whammy for these colleges as parents have been in financial crisis and most of them did not want their children to travel,” said MK Panduranga Shetty, president of Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association.

S Sadagopan, director, International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore, said there’s a combination of factors that work against these colleges that are not able to attract students. “They might not be a great brand. Being new, their credentials are not established. The location might not be favourable. When people have a choice, they prefer to go to the good colleges. Colleges kept on adding seats a few years ago when the IT companies were recruiting in large numbers. Three years ago, the trend stopped and the spillover is now for us to see,” he said.

Private engineering colleges have to set apart 45% seats for government quota, 30% seats for students through ComedK and 25% for management quota.