After 1st round, nearly 250 engg seats remain vacant

Panaji: At the end of the first round of admissions for engineering degree seats, nearly 250 seats have remained vacant, mainly in private colleges in the state. As the admission process to NITs and IITs is still in progress, and medical seat rounds are also yet to take place, the vacancies in private engineering colleges in the state are expected to rise further.
Last year, the chief minister announced subsidised fees for students of private engineering colleges, giving them a waiver ranging from Rs 36,000 to Rs 1 lakh. This was expected to increase the demand for seats. But there has been little improvement in takers for the seats, said officials.
“All the nearly 500 seats available in the only state-run and oldest engineering college, Goa Engineering College, are taken. But almost 250 of the around 1,100 private engineering college seats are vacant at the end of the first round. As more students leave to join NITs and IITs, the vacancies will go up. Some medical seat aspirants have also taken up engineering seats as a back up,” said an official.
Now, the next round of admissions to engineering seats will only take place after the medical seat rounds are held.
“The fee subsidy scheme brought private and government college fees almost on par, but this has not helped to a major extent to reduce vacancies in private colleges. This is because in Goa, parents are willing to shell out money for education and the number of those who cannot pay fees is small,” the official stated.
Officials said that the reason for vacancies in seats is mainly because of the quota for economically weaker sections (EWS) introduced around four years ago. “Due to the quota, seats went up by 25% overnight, taking seats in each stream in each college up from 60 to 75. Another reason is that Goan students over the last few years have become more competitive and get selected to join national institutes like IITs and NITs,” said the source.
Last year, at the end of all the admission rounds, the number of vacant seats in private engineering colleges was 380.
“Of the private engineering colleges, the highest number of vacant seats are at the Shiroda-based Shree Rayeshwar Institute of Engineering and Information Technology (SRIEIT). Computer and IT streams have seen the highest demand this year and these seats are full. Civil engineering is offered only by two colleges GEC, where seats in all streams are full, and Don Bosco College of Engineering, where civil engineering seats are almost fully taken,” said the official.