In the academic year 2021-22, Subhas Sarkar, minister of state for education, informed the Lok Sabha that 33.6% of undergraduate engineering college seats were unfilled.
The minister was responding to a question on how many BTech engineering college seats had been empty during the past five years. In response to a question regarding the vacant BTech seats, Sarkar stated, “The filling up of seats in engineering institutes is reliant on the demand-supply situation, which is dependent on the location of the institutes, academic and infrastructural amenities, and the employment chances.”
According to the information provided by the ministry, 33.6% of BTech seats remained unfilled for the academic year 2021-22. More than 4 lakh BTech seats remain empty in 2021-22 out of a total of 12,53,337 authorised seats. Notable is the fact that almost eight million engineering hopefuls take the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE Main) for admission to various engineering programmes.
According to the data, 44 percent of seats remain empty for the academic year 2020-21 and 44.2% for 2019-20. Over the previous five years, the overall number of allowed seats for engineering courses has likewise decreased.
Vacant BTech seats in last 5 years
Here are the details of the number of seats approved and vacant in engineering colleges in the last five years.
|
Year |
Number of approved seats |
Vacant seats |
|
2017-18 |
14,65,873 |
7,22,112 |
|
2018-19 |
13,95,345 |
6,78,932 |
|
2019-20 |
13,28,247 |
5,87,314 |
|
2020-21 |
12,86,545 |
5,66,538 |
|
2021-22 |
12,53,337 |
4,21,203 |
