Oversupply kills engineering seats - TeluguPeople.com News

It's an ironic state that one can see only in our country. Fewer students have qualified for the EAMCET this time and an over supply of seats has created a depressing scene for management. On the other hand top colleges are hiking the prices of management seats.

Top colleges such as CBIT, MGIT, Vasavi and the likes have raised their fees by 30 to 40 per cent. Parents now need to shell out at least Rs 9 lakh for top colleges in the city and Rs 4 lakh for mid-level colleges. None of the colleges gives even a receipt acknowledging the payment.

They have also shifted out of their campuses and set up offices elsewhere to facilitate the 'donation' operations. CBIT and MGIT have an office in AV College and Srinidhi College has an office in a rundown building opposite Golden Fork Bakery close to Indira Park. Most other colleges have their offices in Domalguda and Himayat Nagar. On an average an engineering student shells out close to Rs 15 lakhs if it is one of the top colleges.

Amaan Fer, a final year engineering student from CBIT, says that when he had applied for admission, he was asked to pay Rs 5 lakh as donation. 'We've heard that now the amount has been increased to Rs 9 lakh for mechanical engineering and Rs 11 lakh for ECE. This is excluding the Rs 95,000 that the government has prescribed as the annual course fees. It sometimes feels more economical to study outside the city,' he says.

For those who'd rather opt for management seats, the high fees prove to be a deterrent. 'I wanted to get into engineering through counselling, but my Eamcet rank wasn't high enough. When I went to inquire from several colleges about the management seats, they quoted extravagant amounts which made me go back seeking the cheaper way ' counseling,' says Sushmita Goud, a student awaiting admissions.

Colleges too don't shy away from extorting money from students. 'When I approached a college for its management quota, I was told it was full. I was then indirectly asked to pay more than the government- prescribed fee of about Rs 6 lakhs for all four years,' recalls Ahmed Mansoor who had to face this situation.

There are 29 engineering colleges in the city and with an average in-take of 240 students each, there are close to 7,000 seats on offer. Yet, a large chunk of these seats go vacant as people are no longer opting for them. Recently, some 2,000 students are reported to have opted to shift from Hyderabad owing to frequent disruptions in their academics due to the T-stir.

The State has 717 engineering colleges offering over 3.3 lakh seats. But how many of them will go unoccupied? JNTU camp officer Raghunath Rao says that nearly 1.2 lakh seats will be vacant and the number of seats has increased drastically over the years.

'The number of students qualifying for the Eamcet this year is down by 45,000 but the seats have increased,' he says. 'The AICTE has simply been permitting colleges to increase their seats. If it does not stop doing that more seats will be vacant through the years,' says an official at the JNTU.