Karnataka govt contemplates on axing unpopular engineering courses

At least 10 engineering streams that have had little or no demand for the last few years may be removed from the pool of seats available for students to choose from.

In alignment with the ongoing trend of low demand for certain streams, the Department of Higher Education is planning to write to the All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to discontinue such streams.

The streams that are under such consideration for low admissions are Aeronautics, Polymer Technology, Environmental Engineering, Construction Technology, Ceramics, and Textiles Engineering.

According to data from the Department of Technical Education, 60 colleges have not enrolled more than three students in some courses, with some colleges even witnessing only one admission in core streams like Civil Engineering.

M C Sudhakar, the Minister for Higher Education, said, “We are collecting college-wise details about low admissions and streams that had no admissions. We will communicate this information to the AICTE.”

This year, courses such as Energy Engineering have enrolled only three students, while Ceramics and Cement Technology have four, Information Security four, Internet-of-Things four, Design Engineering five, Environmental Engineering five and Smart Agritech six.

“This trend has persisted for several years. Some streams have high demand, with more applicants than available seats, while others have seen no admissions at all,” said an official from KEA. Officials from the department emphasise that keeping such unpopular courses in the pool results in a significant number of vacant seats every year.

“At least 10 per cent of the seats unfilled comprises such streams and unless we take them off the pool, the number of seats remaining vacant will not come down,” the official said.

AICTE has extended deadline for admission to engineering courses to October 30.

Following this extension, the government has requested private engineering college managements to provide details about the seats that were returned to them by the government. Once the colleges share this information, the KEA will issue a revised calendar for seat allotment.

Confirming this, Sudhakar said, “We have received communication from AICTE and have requested private college managements to provide details of the available seats.”