Karnataka mulls freezing number of computer science seats in engineering colleges
Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar has cited Telangana’s similar restriction, upheld by the Telangana High Court, as a precedent; the move is aimed at ensuring a balance in employment opportunities among all engineering disciplines.
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Karnataka Higher Education Minister M C Sudhakar (Photo: X/ @drmcsudhakar)Taking a leaf out of the Telangana model, the Karnataka Higher Education Department is exploring options of freezing the enhancement of Computer Science Engineering (CSE) seats in engineering colleges to address concerns about unemployment and an imbalance between engineering disciplines.
Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar has cited Telangana’s similar restriction, upheld by the Telangana High Court, as a precedent. The move aims to curb the rapid increase in CSE seats, which has led to an oversupply of graduates amid a potential industry downturn and a decline in demand for traditional engineering fields like civil and mechanical.
Dr Sudhakar said, “Several colleges in Karnataka are indiscriminately increasing computer science seats, often by converting civil and mechanical engineering seats, which have reduced demand, into CS seats. If this trend continues, we’ll have lakhs of engineering graduates from CS and related disciplines. Eventually, the industry will face a crisis, where most of them could be left unemployed.”
Recently, the Telangana High Court dismissed a batch of writ petitions filed by private engineering colleges that challenged the government’s decision to reject proposals for increased CS intake for the 2024-25 academic year. The court upheld the state’s authority to regulate engineering education.
For the 2024-25 academic year, Karnataka had 1,32,309 engineering seats across 245 colleges, with around 45,000 in CSE and related courses. The surge, attributed to relaxed All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms, has seen some colleges offering 1,500–2,000 CSE seats, often by converting seats from other disciplines.
The number of CET seats — the seats in colleges and universities where common entrance test score is taken into account for admissions — in computer science and related programmes stood at around 24,000 in 2021-22 and rose to approximately 39,500 last year. In total, there were 79,907 CET seats across all disciplines last year. The seat matrix for 2025-26 is yet to be announced. The growth in CSE seats is largely driven by strong industry demand and relaxed norms from the AICTE.
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