Counseling Spells Doom

By Mohammed Younus

No takers for nearly 27,000 seats; No admissions in seven colleges;  only one admission each in 29 colleges

Believe it or not, there are absolutely no takers for nearly 27,000 seats in various privateengineering and pharmacy colleges in Telangana this year, which is all set to force nearly 100 colleges either down their shutters or scale down their courses in the near future.

As the the final phase of EAMCET 2015 counselling came to a close on Friday for admissions of students into 231 engineering colleges and 132 pharmacy colleges in Telangana, nearly 36 per cent of the seats remained unfilled. Out of the total number of 86,805 seats, only 56,017 seats got filled. This includes 52,808 out of 79,484 engineering seats available; and only 84 out of 3,740 pharmacy seats.

Surprisingly, as many as seven colleges registered zero admissions and about 29 colleges could only manage to get only one admission each. Scores of other colleges registered less than 100 admissions. Only 91 colleges were able to fill the seats which they were allotted by the university, indicating a sharp decline of demand among the students for engineering courses in these colleges.

Out of the total 98,643 candidates qualified in the first phase, only 66,410 attended the counseling and 62,668 exercised their options.Ironically about 11,000 students did not report to the colleges in the stipulated time even after being allotted with the seats in various engineering colleges.

“Each college has an intake of at least 240 seats in the first year, with a minimum of 60 seats in each branch – civil, mechanical, electrical, electronics, computer science etc. Some colleges have seats even up to 800. The colleges can run the courses if at least 75 per cent of the seats are filled up. But going by the present trend of admissions this year, many engineering colleges will not be able to sustain and they have no option but to wind up,” an official said.

Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University of Hyderabad (JNTUH), after several rounds of inspections, has disaffiliated and disallowed several private engineering colleges from the counseling for admissions. The university has affiliated about 220 colleges, disallowing 25 colleges and disaffiliating several courses in many other colleges.

However, the college managements managed to get the interim orders from the High Court to participate in counseling. Despite the entire legal efforts by the private engineering college managements, the percentage of admissions in many colleges was not encouraging rather disappointing. “The fact that seven colleges got zero admissions and 29 colleges registered only one admission during the counselling shows the lack of credibility of these colleges. It is surprising as to how the University granted them affiliation and how they could get clearance from the inspection committee,” a source said.

Except a few engineering colleges who could fill up all their seats including those in the 30 per cent management quota, the remaining colleges could not fill up the seats even in the government quota, leave alone in the management quota.

While the government quota (also referred to as convenor quota) is filled up through a centralised counselling process with the students on the basis of their ranks obtained in the engineering entrance test, the management quota is filled up by the college managements at their discretion with the students irrespective of their performance in the entrance test. Educationists and academicians are raising serious questions over the large number of engineering colleges across the state in the back drop of poor admissions.While the percent of students appearing for EAMCET decreased, the number of students opting for engineering courses has also come down compared to the previous year.

Noted educationist Prof G Haragopal said that government must shun the idea of privatizing higher education at least now. He said, “We have to think over the large number of engineering colleges at least now. We do not need such a large number of engineers. Higher education in the state must be public funded.” Lack of proper education and bleak prospects of employment has been driving students away from the engineering colleges in the State, he opined.

Chief Camp Officer for Eamcet 2015 counseling B Srinivas Rao said that inspections were being held in the colleges which have petitioned against the decision of JNTUH and a final report assessing the credentials of colleges would be filed in High Court very soon. On the other hand, private engineering colleges consortium chairman N Goutham Rao said that colleges which did not register any admission this year may not shut down immediately but such colleges may closed down ultimately. He said that some colleges may run for some more time as they have other courses besides graduation.