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Engineering colleges in West Bengal have witnessed a low student enrolment in different engineering courses. Reports state that there are over 60% seats that are still vacant after the final round of counselling session of WBJEE.
More than 60 per cent of the engineering seats in West Bengal is vacant after the end of the counselling process conducted by the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination (WBJEE) Board. As per the registrar office, roughly 10,525 students took admission in engineering courses this year after three phases of the WBJEE counselling process which ended on July 20, 2019.
There are total 32,700 seats in various engineering colleges in West Bengal. This year, 22,175 seats are vacant, as compared to the number of 16,000 last year, this is as per the information received from the registrar office of WBJEEB. Even though the state-wise admission process has ended, colleges can still enrol students on the basis of their individual criteria.
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An official statement from WBJEEB states that the less popular engineering colleges in West Bengal have taken a hard hit, as the number of students who have been enrolled under the different engineering courses such as B.Tech and B.E. at these colleges has not seen many takers. However, private and popular engineering colleges have also not fared well, in terms of applications received for engineering programmes. Statistically speaking, there has been a 30% drop in the number of applications received by the private engineering colleges of West Bengal with more than 18,000 seats being left vacant from 13,375 seats vacant seats from last year admissions.
Among the courses that have taken the biggest hit this year are the core courses such as mechanical, electrical and chemical subjects, etc. Many experts of the field, including the head of the engineering department from Jadavpur University, has stated that the students choose to pursue other programmes due to the lack of job openings in the respective fields.
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Anil Sahasrabudhe, the chairman of AICTE, stated that during a recent draft that had been discussed in a committee, it was revealed that the number of colleges that had been established exceeds the total demand for the courses in engineering. Also, the other reasons for the engineering seats being vacant are the lack of interest in engineering courses which don't offer many job opportunities. In addition, another reason that can be cited is that there is a difference between the starting salaries and the fee paid by students, which leads to them dropping out of the admission process. So, students choose to pursue new courses which have better employment prospects as compared to the B.Tech courses.
