Policy loopholes have led to imbalance in engineering seats in Karnataka

“It’s been a month since the Common Entrance Test (CET-2025) counseling for admission to engineering courses for 2025-26 ended. But, out of 150 seats available in the Computer Science Engineering (CSE) branch in our college, 40 seats are still vacant. Even though the fee for these seats is the same as the government quota seats, no students are coming forward,” said Kalyan, a private engineering college in the tier-3 town of Karnataka region. The chief expressed regret.

“Even though the government has reduced the fees for civil, mechanical and other traditional engineering courses this time, seats are still vacant,” said the principal of a government engineering college in a district neighboring Bengaluru.

In contrast, thousands of engineering seats in private universities in most tier-1 and tier-2 cities of Karnataka have been filled, and these institutions have also taken steps to fill additional seats. This has led to allegations that “discriminatory policies” being implemented by the state government in private universities and government, aided and private engineering colleges are the reason for the huge gap in filling engineering seats.

Sources allege that the government is allowing private universities to start new courses and increase the number of seats in existing courses without any hindrance and they are also exempted from taking permission from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). AICTE permission is mandatory for government, aided and private engineering colleges to start new courses and increase seats.

As a result, private universities have taken steps to fill their seats quickly every year without waiting for government permission, resulting in the majority of students enrolling in private universities. Meanwhile, government, aided and private engineering colleges are lagging behind in complying with AICTE norms.

While a total of 95,366 engineering seats are available in 150 private engineering colleges in the state, there are another 33,300 engineering seats in 27 private universities. On one hand, there is a proliferation of engineering colleges in tier-1 cities like Bengaluru, Mysore and others. On the other hand, colleges in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are in danger of closing without students.

seat matrix

There are a total of 229 engineering colleges in the state for 2025-26, of which 27 are government and constituent colleges of Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), nine are aided engineering colleges, 16 are private minority colleges, 150 are private engineering colleges, two are deemed universities and 27 are private universities.

A total of 1,53,916 engineering seats are available in these colleges, out of which 72,506 seats are filled through the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA). The remaining 32,231 are COMED-K seats and 49,179 are management quota seats.

Of these, all seats in government engineering colleges are government quota seats and are filled by KEA through CET. In private and aided colleges, 45% of government quota seats are filled through KEA, 30% seats are filled through COMED-K and the remaining 25% are management quota seats.

Private universities have given 40% of the seats to the government and the remaining 60% of the seats are filled through entrance examinations conducted by universities or other central institutions such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

AICTE being the apex body of all technical courses in India, it is mandatory for government, aided and private engineering colleges to take permission from AICTE to start new branches and increase seats.

As per AICTE norms, the student-teacher ratio in all technical institutions should be 1:20 and there should be one professor, 3 associate professors and 8 assistant professors for every 60 students (1:3:8 ratio).

In this, Professor and Associate Professor should have PhD in their respective subject. Whereas, Assistant Professors should have passed BE or M.Tech with first division.

Infrastructure related to buildings, toilets, libraries, laboratories and other facilities should be mandatory. And, for example, the CSE laboratory should have one computer for every 10 students (1:10).

While all government, aided and private engineering colleges have to follow these rules, private universities with around 20 acres of land, necessary infrastructure and teaching and non-teaching staff can be run after obtaining permission from the University Grants Commission (UGC). The state government has exempted these universities from taking permission from AICTE to start new colleges, start courses and increase seats. Universities have been allowed to operate after receiving permission from the UGC and No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the Government of Karnataka.

In the meetings of the Board of Governors (BOG), decisions are taken on all issues including infrastructure, starting new courses, examination system, fee fixation, increase in seats and others. They are then submitted to the Karnataka State Higher Education Council (KSHEC), which appoints an expert committee, examines the concerned university and issues NOC.

Impact on other institutions

Due to the relaxation given to them, these universities have increased a large number of seats, especially in the CSE branch.

For example, in a private university in Bengaluru, a total of 4,320 engineering seats are available across six branches for first-year engineering courses, of which 4,020 are for CSE and related courses alone. In the second, out of 3,420 engineering seats available, 2,400 seats belong to CSE. Of the total 2,640 seats available in 11 branches of another college in the city, 1,620 seats are for CSE engineering. Of the total 3,600 seats available in a private university college in South Bengaluru, 2,340 seats are for CSE.

In sharp contrast, the number of CSE seats available in 17 government engineering colleges across the state does not exceed 640.

The relaxation in AICTE norms for private universities has angered many.

“Even if we take admission on an additional seat in our colleges, VTU and Department of Technical Education (DTE) do not approve. Enrollments on all government, management and COMED-K seats will be scrutinized. However, the government is not scrutinizing 60% of the seats in private universities. There is a policy in government degree colleges that no student should be sent back without admission. The same is being followed in private universities too. They give admission to whatever students come. Due to this, admission in all other engineering colleges is being hit,” alleged the principal of a government engineering college.

“Only three of the 27 private universities in Karnataka have taken AICTE approval. If they just show up with fancy buildings and increase seats unusually, the quality of education will be affected. An increase of 3,000 to 5,000 seats will destroy the spirit of technical education,” said Professor Sangappa BS, national executive council member, Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), New Delhi. he argued.

“Due to unavailability of qualified faculty, not all private universities have teachers meeting UGC and AICTE standards. Moreover, private universities do not follow the teacher-student ratio. For example, colleges with about 2,500 CSE seats require a total of 125 people to teach CSE subjects. However, no university has recruited so many teachers. Our organization has appealed to the Central Government to regulate private universities. Have given a representation to the Ministry of Education and UGC.”

How does large number of admissions affect the quality of education?

According to the principal of a leading private engineering college, “The quality of education in colleges with a large number of admissions may not be up to standard. The laboratories and computers available will not be sufficient for all the students. Moreover, it will not be possible to provide adequate skills to such a large number of students. Ultimately, campus placements will also be affected and this will lead to unemployment.”

He said that engineering colleges under VTU have a separate curriculum approved by AICTE. “Will candidates studying courses from private universities without AICTE approval get recognition in foreign companies?”

On the other hand, the principal of a top engineering college in Bengaluru sought to make a case for increasing the number of seats to meet the central government’s target of increasing the gross enrollment ratio to 50% in the next 10 years.

“Recently, AICTE has made several changes in its rules and is allowing government and private engineering colleges to increase seats from 500 to 600. Since there are more software companies in Bengaluru, the job prediction is also higher. Hence, all private colleges and private universities have taken steps to increase CSE seats. Placements in the Information Technology (IT) sector are also increasing. To overcome the faculty shortage, AICTE has appointed practicing professors. The college is allowed to recruit up to 20% of the practicing professors,” he explained.

action to regulate

The Karnataka government is considering enacting a law on the Telangana model to curb the fast-growing engineering colleges in tier-1 cities, increase seats in branches like CSE and regulate private universities.

In recent years, 12 higher educational institutions have submitted a proposal to the Government of Karnataka to establish private universities. Of these, eight were allowed during the previous BJP government, but the state government is yet to issue an official order. Since the state government has decided to change the rules for granting permission to private universities, all these applications have been put on hold for the time being.

Higher Education Minister MC Sudhakar told The Hindu“There is a need to stop the increasing number of private engineering colleges in tier-1 cities and to regulate private universities to stop the increase in CSE seats. We are planning to bring rules on the Telangana model.”

“Last year, the Telangana government had banned the increase of CSE seats in private engineering colleges. This was challenged in the High Court by some private engineering college managements. It is learned that the court, which upheld the action of the Telangana government, has rejected the plea of ​​private engineering colleges,” he said.