No Takers for 50% of Engineering Seats in Bengal

There are no takers for more than 50% of engineering seats in Bengal. Out of 36,000 seats, 19,000 remained empty after the final round of counselling.

These include 221 seats in Jadavpur University (JU), the most coveted technical school in the state.

“After the final round of counselling, only 17,000 seats have been filled,” West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination Board (WBJEEB) chairperson Bhaskar Gupta said on Tuesday.

“This trend only proves the dwindling popularity of engineering as a profession,” Sidhartha Dutta, professor in the engineering faculty at JU, said.

“With every passing year, the number of engineering seats that remain empty is increasing,” Gupta said.

This year, more than 1.2 lakh students sat for the WBJEE for admission to one of the 200 private colleges, six government colleges and JU.

The Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology, formerly known as Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu), has stopped admitting students from WBJEE. This means that students who had cracked the joint entrance examination had 500 fewer seats on offer.

“It’s a reflection of a nationwide phenomenon where students are opting for non-engineering careers options,” Gupta said.

The state higher education department has recently allowed engineering colleges to have decentralised counselling. And, with dwindling interest among students to go in for engineering courses, the number of seats on offer in private engineering colleges is on a steady decline.

In the past one year, the number of engineering seats in the state has decreased from 42,000 to 36,000.

Source: click4college