Study finds that more students are continuing to stray from these courses; however, it adds that compared to traditional courses, there is a slight rise in enrolment to professional courses
Over 31 per cent of seats in first-year diploma engineering courses were vacant, as against the total intake capacity in the state. Representation pic
Huge vacancies in professional and self-financing courses across the state in 2021-22 were revealed in a recent report by the Bombay University and College Teachers’ Union (BUCTU). The vacant seats reflect the fact that more students from across the state continue to stray from these courses, the authors of the report pointed out. The BUCTU report, however, says that despite this, compared to traditional courses, there is a rise in enrolment in the professional courses across the state.
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According to the BUCTU’s report, more than 31 per cent of seats in first-year diploma engineering courses were vacant, as against the total intake capacity in the state, while 36 per cent seats in first-year graduate level or degree engineering courses were vacant. In the case of engineering faculty, enrolment increased from 2019-20 to 2020-21. Enrolment at the diploma level is up 5.9 per cent, while enrolment at the graduate level is up 16.6 per cent. However, a huge number of vacant seats were still seen in both diploma as well as degree courses. At present, 50,550 seats in degree level of engineering remain vacant.
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“The number of professional course institutions, their intake capacity, and the number of students admitted in the first year of the courses for the year 2021-22 were considered by us in the study. A detailed discussion on engineering institutions and their enrolment in 2021-22 was undertaken to highlight the plight of technical education in Maharashtra in the post-pandemic period,” said Tapati Mukhopadhyay, president of Maharashtra Federation of University and College Teachers’ Organisation (MFUCTO), who is the co-author of the report.
In the case of engineering diplomas, the number of admitted students is 69,700 against the 1,02,224 available seats, so vacant seats are 31.8 per cent. At the graduate level in engineering courses, vacant seats are 50,556, which is 36.8 per cent of the total intake capacity across the state.
“The number of seats in unaided engineering colleges is 1,31,424, which is 95.6 per cent of the total intake capacity, and 49,645 of these, which is 37.8 per cent are vacant. This huge number of empty seats in the un-aided section creates tremendous pressure on the institutes and several departments are now facing closure. Besides, there is a severe impact on workload as AICTE has changed the norms of the practical batch from 15 students to 20 students per batch. As a result, workload for the staff has shrunk. At the PG level, the institutions are few and intake capacity is also low. With 20.1 per cent we can see even this low intake of PG remains substantially unutilised,” added Mukhopadhyay. The study report was compiled using enrolment data from various government sources, including the admission figures shared by state universities and the data in the Economic Survey of Maharashtra.
Other professional courses
A severe decline in enrolment was witnessed in architecture too, where 45 per cent of the available seats are vacant. Even here the unaided institutions lead in numbers with 4,935 seats which is 95.6 per cent of the total intake capacity across the state. Out of these 47.4 per cent are vacant. With this decline in enrolment, architectural institutions are facing closure at many places, the BUCTU study points out.
In the case of management studies the total intake capacity is 39,077 at present, and only 10.3 per cent seats are empty. In the case of hotel management courses which are also managed mainly by self-financing un-aided institutions, 47.1 per cent seats are vacant.
“As per the new education policy, there is an emphasis on higher enrolment and bigger institutions. The minimum enrolment expected is 3,000 per institution, and each has to be multidisciplinary. In such a situation the isolated standalone institutions will not survive,” Mukhopadhyay pointed out.
Traditional courses
The arts faculty has recorded 36.1 per cent vacant seats of the total intake capacity in 2021-22 at the graduate level and 60.9 per cent vacancies at the postgraduate level. In the commerce faculty, the number of vacant seats as against its total intake capacity at the graduate level is 28.9 per cent while it is 23.6 per cent at the postgraduate level.
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