With several seats going vacant in engineering degree and diploma courses in the state, there are almost no takers for running the courses in double shifts. Chances are bleak that the demand will shoot up this year, with several thousands vacant seats in state colleges.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Last year, the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) allowed colleges to run degree courses in double shifts. Only MGM College, Lokmanya Tilak College of Engineering and Vidyalankar Institute of Technology, affiliated to the Mumbai University, sought permission then, according to dean of faculty for technology SS Sahare.

Sahare added, “In the colleges affiliated to our university, not many seats were unoccupied. However, in the last couple of years, several colleges are coming up in the state, leading to a surplus of seats.

Some of the courses, like information technology and computers, are not much in demand now, and seats are lying vacant. Hence, there is no need for double shifts.

Colleges are currently focussing on filling up the seats available.

Though the university has started receiving applications from colleges for new courses and new colleges, they have not yet compiled the data.

This academic year, around 22,500 seats in degree courses and almost 30,000 seats in diploma courses were lying vacant after the centralised admission process. Government officials feel that the low demand in diploma and post-SSC courses could be due to the uncertainty over SSC results.

“The technical education board started admissions much before the junior college admissions, so there were not many takers,” said Mahesh Phatak, secretary, higher and technical education department.

Phatak added that the state will also be allowing degree colleges to run diploma courses in second shifts. “Colleges with the infrastructure can offer to run two shifts. The second shift courses will benefit students who are keen on earning while learning,” added Phatak.