1.3 lakh seats vacant; government aided PU colleges in Karnataka losing sheen

Belagavi: Government aided pre-university colleges in the state are losing sheen as they are struggling to attract students.

During the 2025-26 academic year alone, colleges failed to fill all the available seats. According to data provided by Minister for School Education and Literacy Madhu Bangarappa before the Legislative Council, as many as 1,33,243 seats were left vacant.

According to information shared in a written reply to a question by BJP MLC Dr Dhananjay Sarji, total seats available at aided colleges for the 2025-26 academic year were 2,25,200, of which, the colleges were able to fill only 91,957. Though there is no intake restriction at government run colleges, they enrolled only 2,77,507 students. 

Following the decline in demand, several aided institutions approached the department for closure, and between 2022-23 and to 2024-25, as many as 11 aided colleges were closed in the state. However, the minister clarified that in the last three years, no government PU college has been closed.

Meanwhile, experts opined that allowing private colleges to open was the reason for closure of aided colleges and also for the decline in admissions at those colleges.

"Both government and aided colleges follow a similar structure in functioning. They don't offer integrated coaching for competitive exams, they lack of teachers and other infrastructure. When this is the scenario, parents and students prefer private colleges over the government and aided ones," said a senior academician. 

The data shared by the minister before the House revealed that no new government college has come up in the state in last three years.

However, as many as 393 private unaided colleges were permitted.