75% comp sci & AI seats filled, vacancies high in core courses

Mumbai: After completion of four rounds of centralised admission process (CAP) for engineering courses in Maharashtra, just 30% of over 2 lakh seats across the state remain vacant. Officials expect it to drop after the institutional-level admission round.Core branches, such as civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, are increasingly seeing a drop in demand, contributing to most of the vacant seats, shows data released by the state's common entrance test (CET) cell. Newer and tech-driven courses, on the other hand, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and data science, are seeing higher enrolment rates. Despite offering fewer seats, these emerging disciplines are filling up faster due to growing industry relevance and job prospects. So far, around 1.4 lakh students have confirmed their admissions through the CAP rounds. Last year, data from the CET cell showed that over 70% applications were for computers and IT-related courses for undergraduate admissions. This year, close to 75% seats in AI and ML courses are filled, as is the case with computer engineering and IT (see box). But civil engineering has 37% vacancies, and mechanical and electrical 36%. G T Thampi, principal of Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, said the world is aspiring to make their legacy systems more intelligent and massive investment is happening in developing AI techniques. "Admission drives are primarily dependent on the trends in job markets and the AI industry is experiencing an accelerated growth. Students are making an informed choice. Students with degrees in core engineering branches such as civil and mechanical are forced to do a postgraduate or an MBA to stay relevant. There are jobs in the automobile industries, but the sector is not seeing any new investment. Even if students are not getting into branches such as AI and data sciences, computer-related courses are the second-best option." B N Chaudhari, principal of Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, however, called it herd mentality and felt students should be looking at core branches at undergraduate level and then AI and ML for postgraduation. "None of the IITs has started offering these AI courses at BTech level. Society needs good mechanical engineers with good AI skills or a good civil engineer with knowledge of data science. These areas are dynamic and fast changing. What students are learning now could become irrelevant five years later or it may have advanced. Turning their back on core branches may not be a wise decision in the long run," he said, adding that abnormal growth in second-rung private colleges could be a reason for higher admissions, too.