MUMBAI: Up to 70% seats in mechanical, civil and electrical engineering courses are vacant in state’s

this year, while 30% seats are vacant in computer and IT courses.

Despite reduction in intake capacity, almost one in two engineering seats (49%) remained unoccupied during the admission process that ended last week. In the previous year, 43% seats were vacant across colleges.

Educationists said that lesser jobs in core sectors will hit the demand-supply chain furthermore. “Engineering graduates are competing with BCom and BSc pass-outs in the service sector, forcing them to opt out of the four-year programme. With automobile and construction industries going down, over 300 ancillary sectors are affected too. Since jobs available in the core manufacturing sectors are depleting, students are looking for employment opportunities that are not commensurate with their qualification,” said former All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) chairman, SS Mantha.

There is, therefore, a debate on why they should spend an extra year (for the four-year BE), and that too, on an expensive engineering course when they get the same jobs as a BCom or BSc graduate, added Mantha.

Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) data shows mechanical engineering, having the highest numbers of seats in the centralised admission process (CAP) for BE programmes, also has the lowest percentage of enrolment. Almost 72% of the 33,900 mechanical engineering seats in CAP are vacant this year. In civil and electrical engineering, around 67% and 69% seats are vacant respectively. On the contrary, only 33% of the 17,476 seats in computer engineering are vacant.

Former director of IIT-Delhi, RK Shevgaonkar, said capacity created in computer engineering branch has increased, leading to more students opting for it. “Most students prefer computer engineering also because of the herd mentality. With lesser jobs available, students from mechanical and electrical engineering courses also end up in IT and consultancy jobs. Core branches are not lucrative any more,” said Shevgaonkar. While infrastructure sector is thriving, most jobs are in unorganised sector; salaries, too, are not appealing, he added.

Of the 1.27 lakh engineering seats under CAP, 62,086 were vacant this year. Almost 99% seats are vacant in the private and unaided engineering colleges, with a few hundred vacancies in government, government aided or university-managed institutes. “College managements saw temporary demand and increased their capacity in the past, but the demand has not sustained. Many new colleges came up, divisions were increased, but now they are not able to fill all seats. The number of seats is more than the interested students,” said director of VJTI, Dhiren Patel.

A principal of an engineering college said institutions that fail to offer quality education and good placements should be asked to shut shop.