Maharashtra: 1.17L take admission to engineering colleges this year — highest in five years

Highlighting that this shows a regaining popularity for engineering courses due to different new-age courses offered in the field, an official from the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) said, “The technology sector is witnessing a sea-change, with different new trending concepts, especially artificial intelligence and machine learning — which are becoming popular among aspirants. Many universities now offer these new courses.”

With over 1.55 lakh aspirants, the CETC already witnessed record-breaking applications for engineering courses this year.

In July this year, The Indian Express had reported how Computer Engineering was the most preferred branch by applicants, whereas a very new branch of artificial intelligence made it to the top-five sought-after branches in the field. In 2022, there were a total of 1.33 lakh applications for engineering courses, with 1.13 lakh candidates in 2021-22.

A comparative data of the past five years shows that demand for engineering courses has been witnessing an increase consistently, following an alarming drop, leading to an increased number of vacancies in engineering colleges several years ago.

“There was a time when engineering colleges were recording alarming vacancies, with many even applying to non-popular engineering branches. But growth in the technology sector has shown a demand for engineering courses again,” said the DTE official.