1,000 Engineering Seats Vacant at UP Technical University (UPTU)

Nearly 1,000 seats of undergraduate engineering courses are vacant in government engineering colleges of UP Technical University.

Of the 2,872 seats in these institutions, the university will have to fill over 30% unoccupied seats in the last two days of open counselling starting on August 5.

Interestingly, more seats are vacant in popular government colleges than the less popular ones. For instance, number of vacant seats is more in HBTI, Kanpur than the Institute of Engineering Technology (IET) in the state capital.

According to data of the admission cell, after the final round of the centralised admission process (CAP) for engineering seats that started in June, the university could not even fill government college seats. To save itself from embarrassment, UPTU will hold two-day open counselling to fill the unoccupied seats.

The seats are lying vacant because candidates who qualified for IITs and NITs left their seats in UPTU. Moreover, students' interest in the university has slumped because of poor placement record.

However, newly appointed UPTU vice-chancellor, Vinay Pathak, said this is a common phenomenon at technical universities all over the country these days.

"All technical universities across the country are facing similar problem. The interest in engineering education has declined. There are more seats and less number of students. We will try hard to mend things. Better placement of our students will help in regaining their confidence," said Pathak.

The V-C said unmindful opening of engineering colleges has affected the quality of technical education in the country.

Another official of the university said that at a time when IITs are unable to fill all their seats in the first round of counselling, how can anyone expect UPTU to do so. On the contrary, placement in engineering institutes have suffered and left many students unemployed.

Engineering colleges in the state are once again staring at the prospect of half-empty classrooms. Of the 1.4 lakh seats, more than 95,000 seats are still vacant. It will now be left on the colleges to fill these seats on their own.

"Most seats are filled towards the last few days of counselling as one gets her/his preferred seat in popular colleges after many students, who had blocked seats, take admission in IITs and NITs," said the official.

Source: HT Lucknow