With computer science and its related streams accounting for more than 64 per cent of the engineering seats in Karnataka, the Government is planning to restrict the number of seats, anticipating unemployment due to the surplus output from engineering colleges.
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Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar said in the Legislative Council on Tuesday, “There is a bigger problem awaiting us in the future, and it will be unemployment of engineering graduates. Of the 1.53 lakh engineering seats, 99,707 seats were in computer science and related subjects. I wrote a letter to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) requesting it to regulate the intake for computer science and related streams. It responded saying it cannot regulate, but permission was granted to do the same.”
BJP MLCs Dhananjaya Sarji and Pradeep Shettar also raised concerns over the issue.
Sarji said, “If you see private universities, 90 per cent of the courses offered are related to computer sciences or related streams. One university by the name Sapthagiri had 4,320 seats, and 4,020 are related to the computer science stream. On the other hand, only 10 per cent of the overall intake was related to computer science in government colleges.”
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Sudhakar admitted that it was a genuine problem and said the Telangana Government had already capped engineering seats. “We have decided to restrict the number of seats, including for computer science. A similar decision was taken by the Government in neighbouring Telangana, and the decision was upheld by the high court and the Supreme Court. We will also rationalise the seats and restrict intake for a few streams,” he added.
Sudhakar also said the higher education department had issued notices to two private universities—PES University and Alliance University—that had increased their student intake and started new courses without government permission. There are 22 private universities in the state, he added.
Private universities have begun offering engineering courses in artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning, among others—streams considered unconventional till a few years ago. Some colleges have stopped offering courses such as mechanical engineering and reduced their intake for civil engineering and automobile engineering programmes because of flagging demand.