Mumbai: After a decade of sluggishness, Maharashtra is witnessing a renewed boom in engineering education.
With a day left for admissions, the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell has recorded the highest-ever enrolment of more than 1.4 lakh students in the first year of Bachelor of Engineering (BE) and Bachelor of Technology (BTech) programmes. This figure is significantly higher than 1.17 lakh students admitted last year and also dwarfs the previous peak of 1.07 lakh enrolment in 2012-13.
While around 40,000 out of 1.8 lakh seats available for undergraduate engineering courses are still left without takers, the sharp growth in enrollment has brought down the share of vacant seats to 22%. This is a notable improvement compared to 2019-20 when more than half the 1.44 lakh spots available for BE/BTech in colleges were unfilled.
Following a steady growth for several years after the turn of the millennium, the engineering profession had started falling out of favour thanks to the saturation in job market in manufacturing, infrastructure and real estate sectors. However, the popularity of engineering courses prompted proliferation of tech institutes across the state.
The revival of the discipline in Maharashtra began after Covid-19 pandemic.
According to colleges, the introduction of new courses on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and data science, coupled with the simultaneous closure of the 'core' mechanical, civil and electrical programmes, has resulted in more students making a beeline for the engineering colleges.
“Around 60-70% of the seats in most of the colleges are now related to computer science and allied fields,” said Sandeep Joshi, Principal of Pillai College of Engineering, New Panvel.
FPJ has previously reported that while computer, IT, electronics as well as the new-age streams are attracting students despite the global slowdown in the software industry, the demand for core branches has remained static.
According to Gopakumaran Thampi, Principal of Thadomal Shahani Engineering College in Bandra, the colleges in the large cities are getting adequate students, but those in mofussil towns and villages are still struggling to have all their seats filled. “The students from rural areas are seeking admission to city colleges, as they provide better opportunities to them,” he said.
“The state's recent fee waiver for female students as well as the existing tuition fee waiver scheme has also contributed to a rise in enrollment,” he said.
The experts, however, remain sceptical about job prospects for the large batch of students entering the profession after four years. “Many of the skills taught to students in these programmes might become obsolete due to the increasing use of artificial intelligence,” said Joshi.
