‘Increasing difficulty level one cause for drop in applications’
Students are very clear about the institute they want... If they don’t get a seat in a good institute of their choice, they’d rather choose something else...
DEVANG KHAKKAR,
Director, Iit-delhi
MUMBAI: Blame it on tougher competition or lack of job opportunities, engineering institutes, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITS), are complaining about the declining demand for their courses.
The fall in demand has also automatically reflected in the rising number of vacant seats in institutes across the country.
Many experts highlighted how an engineering degree no longer has the prestige it earlier did. “Students are very clear about the institute they want, especially for the quality of education it imparts. If they don’t get a seat in a good institute of their choice, they’d rather choose something else more lucrative and interesting...” said Devang Khakkar, director of Iit-bombay.
Some also felt the increasing level of difficulty of the JEE exams is another reason for the drop in demand for JEE. “Students prefer state-conducted Common Entrance Tests (CETS) compared to an all-india exam because that gives them a chance at institutes closer home, and the level of difficulty is less compared to JEE,” said Pravin Tyagi, founder and director of Pace Jun- ior Science Colleges.
Of the 10,988 seats in 23 IITS in 2017, the number of vacant seats stood at 121, up from 96 in 2016 and 50 the year before that.
Colleges also said that some courses like electronics and telecommunications are losing popularity. These courses account for the highest number of closures across the country, according to the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).
“It’s not that engineering altogether is losing its sheen, but the fact that certain branches of engineering have become defunct over the years. Branches that do not promise steady jobs after the degree are seeing very few takers...” said Dhiren Patel, director, Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) in Mumbai.