SHWETA KAMAT
shweta@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Nearly 25 per cent of engineering degree seats are lying vacant across four private colleges in the State. Only one institute, the State-run Goa Engineering College (GEC), Farmagudi, has managed to fill all its 480 seats, including 60 seats for its new programme – BE electronics in VLSI (very large scale integrated) and design technology.
Also, more than 50 per cent of engineering aspirants have opted for computer science stream while the mechanical and civil engineering is the second and third choice for students.
For the academic year 2022-23, around 300 seats of the total 1,578 spread across five engineering colleges- one government and four private- have remained vacant at the end of admissions as on October 31. Last year too, at the end of all the admission rounds, the number of vacant seats was 380.
Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) official said the reason for vacant seats is mainly because of the quota for economically weaker sections (EWS) introduced in 2019, wherein the State government asked colleges to increase the seats by 25 per cent.
“Due to the quota, seats went up by 25 per cent, taking seats in each stream in each college up from 60 to 75,” the official said while adding that in the last few years, Goan students have got selected to join national institutes like IITs and NITs.
On an average, 2,000 students apply for engineering seats with DTE every year.
“All the 480 seats available in GEC are taken. Even the 60 seats of the new BE electronics in VLSI and design technology programme are full. But almost 300 seats of the around 1,078 seats in private engineering colleges are vacant,” official said.
The private colleges include- Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna, Don Bosco College of Engineering, Fatorda, Rayeshwar Institute of Engineering and Information Technology (RIEIT) Shiroda and Agnel Institute of Technology and Design, Assagao.
The official said while engineering seats go vacant every year, the NEET-based admission for 600 seats always go full.
“All 600 seats always taken include 150 nursing, 150 MBBS, 100 para medical, 60 Ayurveda, dentistry, pharmacy,” the official said.