Not a single student has enrolled in 33 private engineering colleges, offering a total of 2,720 seats, via the counselling for the 2018-19 academic year conducted by the Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK).
While some of these colleges are located in Bengaluru, a majority are located in other parts of the State, particularly in north Karnataka.
COMEDK quota seats are three times more expensive than government quota seats. Many of these colleges are known to slash their fees when they find there are no takers for the seats. Despite being priced lower than the government-quota seats, they have found no takers.
Overall, around 62% of the total 16,236 seats available under COMEDK went vacant. Data provided by COMEDK shows that 10 colleges managed to fill 80 to 99.99% of their seats. As many as 16 colleges filled between 50% and 79.99% seats, while 10 colleges have filled 25% to 49.99% seats. As many as 43 colleges have less than 25% of seats filled.
Only six colleges in the State have managed to fill all the 1,349 seats available under the COMEDK quota.
S. Kumar, executive secretary of COMEDK, said it is not a new trend and there has been a decline in engineering admissions for seven years now.
Despite the low admissions, the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Association was at loggerheads with the government and demanded a hike in fees for government quota as well as COMEDK quota seats.
After an 8% hike in fees, the engineering fees for the 2018–19 academic year was ₹53,460 or ₹59,400 for government quota seats in private colleges, while the fees for COMEDK quota seats in private colleges is ₹1.83 lakh or ₹1.3 lakh.
The principal of a city-based engineering college, however, said that colleges with good infrastructure and faculty members do not face such a problem. “Although there is a mushrooming of engineering colleges, good colleges survive. Our placements have declined over the past three years, which has automatically resulted in low admissions this year,” he said.
It’s not just COMEDK quota seats but also government quota and management surrendered seats in private colleges that have gone vacant. Officials of the Karnataka Examinations Authority said even the government quota seats in private colleges were unfilled. As many as 20,303 out of 68,404 are vacant.