Students enrolled in computer science engineering and the number of seats offered at the undergraduate level saw the highest spike in over five years across engineering colleges, enrolment data from the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), accessed by News 18 shows. Also, the number of institutions offering the said discipline rose the most, as compared to other branches in 2022-23.
Admission data shows that computer science engineering (CSE) remained the top choice for students at 96 per cent admission percentage in 2022-23 — the highest since 2018-19. Close to it, is electronics and communication (E&C), which was the second most sought-after discipline at an admission percentage of 83 per cent during the same period.
Other core engineering branches such as civil, electrical and mechanical though having improved student intake over the past two years, comparatively, saw a lower admission percentage at approximately 58 per cent, 74 per cent and 60.5 per cent, respectively in 2022-23.
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As many as 3,76,048 students enrolled in computer science engineering in 2022-23 in AICTE-affiliated colleges, as against the approved intake of 3,90,968, taking the admission percentage to around 96 per cent. In 2021-22, this figure stood at 2,91,569 against 3,22,414 seats (90.5 per cent); 2,19,921 against 2,84,946 (77 per cent) in 2020-21; 1,88,043 enrolled against 2,37,996 seats (79 per cent) in 2019-2020; and 1,63,927 students against the approved intake of 2,35,264 (69.5 per cent) in 2018-19, according to data.
“It has been observed that while demand has risen across engineering courses over the past two years, computer science remains the top choice mainly because of the job offers associated with this sector. More colleges have been applying, seeking an increase in the number of seats in CS. The good news is that even in other core branches such as mechanical and electrical, there has been a substantial improvement in intake. This is mainly because colleges were asked to offer core disciplines along with a minor in emerging tech such as AI and data science, which has shown results,” said a senior official.
The number of overall institutions as well as the seats offered for several disciplines such as computer science also grew significantly because of the growing demand for the discipline among engineering students. This rise in demand after a dip during the pandemic is what prompted the AICTE to lift the moratorium on new engineering colleges last year, which essentially meant that more such colleges could open across the country. The moratorium was imposed because as opposed to the demand a larger number of colleges had come up while seats would remain unfilled.
This time, giving even more leeway to existing colleges, the Council in its approval process handbook released last month for a period of three years from 2024-25 to 2026-27 has removed the cap on student intake for “well-performing” institutions, provided the quality of education is maintained.
AICTE member secretary Rajive Kumar said that the trend is encouraging. “Given the demand, this is the first time that we have given complete freedom to colleges to increase the intake as much, provided they have the infrastructure and trained faculty to teach as many students without compromising on quality. We will ensure stringent checks on quality for all institutes applying for increased intake,” said Kumar.
The number of AICTE-approved institutions offering computer science at the UG level grew to 2,461 in 2022-23, which was close to that in 2018-19 when the number of such institutes was 2,413. It was 2,443 in 2021-22; 2317 in 2020-21 and 2,343 in 2019-20.
The approved student intake across these 2,413 existing colleges was over 3.90 lakh last year, which is almost double that of any other branch. The approved intake in electronics and communication across 2,010 existing institutes was over 1.64 lakh during the same period. As compared to CS, the intake allowed in the electronics branch dipped each year since 2018-19 when it stood at over 2.29 lakh; 2.10 lakh seats in 2019-20; over 1.88 lahks in 2020-21; and 1.74 lakh in 2021-22.
The admission percentage against the approved intake too remained low at 49.4 per cent in 2018-19; 56.9 per cent in 2019-20; and 55.5 per cent in 2020-21, before improving significantly in 2021-22 to 72.6 per cent and then to 83 per cent in 2022-23, as per data.
Similarly, the admission percentage in civil, electrical and mechanical streams, too improved the most in 2021-22 and 2022-23 after remaining low in the previous years.
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