63% seats remain vacant in Bathinda technical varsity, highest in two years

More than 63% of seats in different courses offered in colleges affiliated with Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University (MRSPTU) remained vacant in the current academic session of 2023-24

BATHINDA: More than 63% of seats in different courses offered in colleges affiliated with Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University (MRSPTU) remained vacant in the current academic session of 2023-24.

More than 63% of seats in different courses offered in colleges affiliated with Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University (MRSPTU) remained vacant in the current academic session of 2023-24.

It was the lowest overall admission percentage of the Bathinda-based public educational institute since the 2021-22 session as a sanction of a higher number of seats failed to attract students. However, with 8,386 admissions this academic year, the university witnessed the highest number of intake since 2019.

University data shows that the admission rate of 36.33% was marginally higher than the academic session of 2019-20 and 2020-21 when student enrolment was only 32% for both years.

As per the admission data shared by the MRSPTU’s dean academics, no student was admitted in 14 courses offered on the university campus in Bathinda, including BTech (agriculture engineering), BSc (forensic science), executive MBA, MA (fine arts) and MTech (electronics and communication engineering).

Established in 2015 by Akali-BJP government, the institute has 57 affiliated colleges in 11 districts of the Malwa region.

Faculty members attribute the trend of lower admission rate to not updating the academic programmes with the job market sector, tough competition from the private universities and the preference of the Punjabi youth to migrate on study visas.

Professor Karanvir Singh, who heads the admission cell of the university, said on Wednesday that efforts are on to revamp the academic environ under which job-oriented courses are being introduced.

“It has been observed that students prefer to study in the university and accepting the trend, the colleges are gearing to start new courses as per the demand of the industry. The impact of the new academic programmes will be visible in the next couple of years,” he added.

According to the official data, there were 23,080 seats for various courses on the MRSPTU campus and affiliated institutes. However, the enrolment in the on-going session was only 8,386.

In the previous session, the admission rate was 42% when against a total of 14,995 seats, only 6,284 could be filled. During the 2021-22 session, the admission rate was 45% which was the highest in the last five sessions. A total of 5,668 students were admitted to different courses when there was an intake capacity of 12,541 students.

In the 2023-34 session, there were 18,703 seats in different private affiliated colleges while only 6,772 seats were filled.

In the previous session, against the college intake of 10,493, the admissions were only 5,061.

Giani Zail Singh Campus College of Engineering and Technology, an on-campus institute managed by the MRSPTU, had 333 admissions against 534 seats. In the last session, admissions in the college were 242 for the same number of seats.

Admission rate on the university campus courses saw a surge in the current session when 815 students were enrolled against 1,982 seats in different courses. A total of 492 seats filled in the 2022-23 session when the university campus had 1,984 seats. Data says courses like B Pharma, BA (computer science) and BTech (artificial intelligence and machine learning) were among the most sought-after.