“This craze for computer science is only in Telugu states. People are blindly opting for these courses. If this continues for a few more years, there won’t be any balance as there will be hardly any students studying core engineering courses,” All India Federation of Self-financing Technical Institutions general secretary KVK Rao said.
He explained how he was forced to cancel computer science and emerging technology courses in another state to start core engineering. “I have another college in West Bengal. This year, I had to close computer science and emerging technology courses and start mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering in their place. In other states, demand is for conventional courses. Only our students are not realising,” he added.
In Telangana, there are 173 engineering colleges and 82,666 seats. Of the seats, 70,665 got filled in the first phase alone. Of these seats, 55,876 seats were in computer science and IT-related courses. In the first phase 52,637 (94.20%) seats in computer and related branches got filled and just 3,239 were vacant.
“I have counselled several students and their parents about opportunities in other fields, but they want to take only computer science-related courses. Even those who are not getting a seat in counselling are ready to shell out lakhs of rupees to get a seat in management quota,” Technical and Professional Institutes’ Employees Association president V Balakrishna Reddy said, adding that even the remaining seats in CSE and related branches might be in rural areas and would get filled in the coming phases.
The faculty and management said the demand will impact product-based industries in the next four to five years,. They said while other states have hardly few thousand seats in CSE courses, Telangana has over 67% of its total seats in these branches.
