Hyderabad, September 26: With a huge increase in the number of engineering colleges and seats, more than 43,034 seats fell vacant in both engineering and pharmacy colleges across the state after the allotment of seats for first phase of counselling was announced here tonight. Though the officials have announced that the second phase of web counselling will commence from October 5, sources said that at least 25,000 of the 1.8 lakh seats in the engineering stream under convener quota are likely to remain vacant in the end.
About 33,000 new seats have been sanctioned by the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for the state this year in addition to the existing two lakh seats in the engineering colleges. Last year, only 6,000 seats were vacant as against 1.4 lakh seats under convener quota.
There was a balance between traditional and new age courses like computer science engineering as large number of students opted for Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), and Mechanical Engineering in the order of preference. Further, many students preferred to urban engineering colleges against those located in rural areas. Announcing the seat allotment, Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE) chairman P Jayaprakash Rao said that the classes for engineering students will commence from September 30.
Only 1.5 lakh students appeared for verification of certificates as against 2.3 lakh students who qualified for admission for engineering stream of Eamcet 2010. As against 1.92 lakh seats under convener quota, 1.8 lakh are for engineering and 12,779 for pharmacy courses. About 50 per cent of the pharmacy seats will be filled through medical counselling. While 1.48 lakh seats were filled in engineering colleges, about 1,713 seats were filled in pharmacy colleges. About 31,000 engineering seats are still vacant and the rest of the pharmacy seats will be filled through counselling in medical stream.
“More than 50 per cent of the seats under management quota have already been filled. Except for a few colleges which are in rural areas particularly new colleges, there was good response. Due to increase in the number of seats, the number of vacant seats appears to be more despite the fact that there is increase in number of students when compared to last year,” Consortium of Engineering Colleges Managements Association (CECMA) secretary P Rajeswar Reddy said. However, sources said that there are no takers for engineering seats under management quota forcing the college managements to offer discounts to get students admitted to their colleges.
Meanwhile, the officials said that students can check the seat allotment on website ‘http://apeamcet.nic.in’. Due to ban on bulk SMS and MMS services, the officials said that they are unable to send results through SMS on the phone numbers of students.
–Agencies