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NEW DELHI: Over a year after the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) lifted the ban on new engineering colleges and programmes, seats are going vacant again.

In Karnataka, after three rounds of COMEDK counselling, 18, 276 general seats in private engineering colleges remained vacant; in government engineering colleges, 13,089 seats were vacant after Karnataka Examination Authority’s process (KEA counselling), shows data accessed by Careers360.

The swathes of vacant seats is the result of a massive increase in intake across public and private AICTE-recognised colleges, said S Kumar, executive secretary, Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK). Counselling is the process by which a candidate who has qualified the entrance examination is allotted a seat in a specific programme and college.

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After the top technical education regulator permitted such expansion , especially for computer science and allied courses, in 2023, engineering colleges increased intake. In some cases, the number of BTech seats went up from 120 to as many as 500, said Kumar.

Student groups like the All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) also point to fee-hike as another cause. Apoorva, state vice president, All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) blames the rise in admission fees from Rs 14,000 to Rs 45,000 in government seats, sidelining many low-income students.

COMEDK is a network of private colleges and conducts its own exam – the COMEDK UGET – for BTech admissions. For state-run colleges and government-quota seats in private colleges, the KEA conducts the KCET.

[Q]Karnataka BTech seats[/Q]

The number of engineering seats across states has risen sharply after AICTE lifted the moratorium on new colleges and courses.

According to data from the AICTE, for the 2024-25 academic year, 137 engineering colleges were approved for expansion at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. They collectively increased intake by 19,486 seats.

Across the country, there’s been an increase of 2,08,988 seats, UG and PG. The states in the table below saw the highest increases.

Increase in engineering seats

[Q]Karnataka Engineering Colleges: BTech fees[/Q]

“One important reason [for empty seats] is that the Karnataka State Higher Education Council has increased 10% fees to Rs 45,000, which was Rs 14,000 and Rs 24,000 in the previous years. The government quota engineering seats in private colleges are generally picked by students from poor families – farmers, labourers and others. And now these vacant seats are given to management quota of engineering colleges,” said Apoorva.

The government allows colleges to charge 10% of the semester tuition fees as admission fee. Previously, the fee had been reduced but now, has been raised again, along with the fees of the programmes themselves.

Inadequate public funding is leading to fee hikes, say teachers.

“Government colleges are not receiving the required funding to run the institutes which has pushed them to charge higher fees from students. This is the reason the government has unanimously allowed institutes to increase the fees,” said Sujit Kumar, state secretary, Engineering Colleges Faculty Association (ECFA).

Kumar stated: “Previously, rural students accessing these colleges were receiving quality education. Now they are drastically affected because of the decision [to increase fees].”

A student at a government engineering college, who didn't want to be named, said: “Only a few thousand seats are available under the government quota for students of Karnataka and every year approximately three lakh students appear in state engineering exams. With the rise in fees, …many are deprived of this education because of economic reasons.”

Declining BTech cut-offs, quality

Kumar from COMED-K said that over the past five years, top Karnataka engineering colleges saw closing ranks of around 1000 for BTech in computer science. However, in the same college this year, the last allotted seats have been at around 68000 rank, highlighting a decline in standards.

“There is an issue of a high number of seats, which has increased drastically over the last year, and then there is a fees issue,” he said.

The student rights associations are demanding that the Karnataka government own up to the mistake of increasing fees and also increasing the number of seats across engineering colleges.