State moves to safeguard core engineering courses

For the last couple of years enrolments for core engineering branches have come down from 25,377 in 2021-22 to 21,424 in the last academic year.

Hyderabad: Amid diminishing interest of students in enrolling for civil and mechanical engineering branches has prompted private engineering colleges to add seats in the CSE and allied branches at the cost of core engineering branches.

This has ended in the State government seeking to protect the core engineering branches – civil, mechanical and electrical, and deciding not to permit conversion of seats from core engineering branches to computer science and engineering (CSE), and allied branches.

For the last couple of years enrolments for core engineering branches have come down from 25,377 in 2021-22 to 21,424 in the last academic year.

The data available with the government show students are preferring emerging engineering branches like AI, ML, cyber security and CSE as the academic year 2021-22 saw 52,323 enrollments in these programmes, which rose to 69,577 in 2023-24.

This has prompted private engineering colleges to go for conversion of core engineering seats into the CSE and allied branches. Several managements have reduced their intake in core branches from 120 to 30 and an equal number of seats were added to CSE branches.

As a result, nearly 71 per cent of the convener quota seats in the engineering courses are in the CSE and allied branches during the academic year 2024-25. While there are 86,509 convener seats, 61,329 seats are in the CSE and allied branches alone.

Only 3,560 seats in Civil engineering and 3,370 seats in Mechanical engineering were up for grabs through the TG EAPCET this year.

“To protect the core engineering branches, it was decided not to allow conversion from core engineering programmes to CSE and allied courses,” officials said.

Meanwhile, the Telangana Council of Higher Education instructed private engineering colleges to adhere to guidelines and schedule for filling up 30 per cent seats under the management quota.

The Council directed colleges to issue the admission notification and make applications available online and offline.

“The colleges are instructed to follow the B-category admission guidelines and schedule scrupulosity not giving any scope for further complications,” the Council said.