BTech registrations in Maharashtra rise to 5.03 lakh from 4.04 lakh last year

After a lull for two years owing to Covid-19, undergraduate professional education seems to be on the upswing with around one lakh more engineering aspirants having applied for the state common entrance test (MH-CET) scheduled for May

After a lull for two years owing to Covid-19, undergraduate professional education seems to be on the upswing with around one lakh more engineering aspirants having applied for the state common entrance test (MH-CET) scheduled for May.

Students writing MH-CET in Pune. HT File Photo

Registration for MH-CET for undergraduate technical courses ends on Thursday. Figures shared by CET cell show 5.03 lakh students vying for 1.27 BTech seats have registered for the entrance exam as of Wednesday evening compared to a total of 4.04 lakh registrations in 2021-22.

Officials from CET cell say the numbers are bound to increase in the next few days as some students are yet to complete the documentation that makes them eligible to appear for CET.

The registration figure in 2020-21 was 5.32 lakh, whereas it was 4.50 lakh in 2019-20. While the dip in registrations last year was attributed to the financial strain on families caused by the pandemic in terms of job losses and salary cuts and delay in commencement of the admissions, this year, the number seems to match the figure in pre-Covid-19 times.

“The last two years have been financially draining for families which pushed some students to drop their plan of pursuing engineering by at least a year. This year, the number of applications will be higher because several students who could not fulfil their dream last year, either due to financial or other reasons, will be competing for seats,” said the principal of an engineering college in the city.

As per figures shared by CET cell last year, the intake capacity of BTech courses was 1.25 lakh in the 2021-22 academic year.

In 2020, registration for CET commenced in March, but the rest of the process was halted due to the imposition of Covid-19-induced lockdown. This process was reopened in August, and the entrance test was finally conducted in October, which is usually held in May. Last year, the second wave hit the registration as well as the exam process. While the process started in June, the exam was held in September.

The surge in demand for engineering courses could also be attributed to the demand for fresh IT-engineering graduates in the 2021-22 placement season, experts said. This in part was reflected by the fact that for the first time in over six years, seat vacancy at BTech institutes in Maharashtra dropped below 40% to settle at 36.6% in 2021-22. It stood at 45.6% and 48% in 2020-21 and 2019-20 respectively.

“IT-related graduate programmes are in high demand and most engineering colleges in urban areas did not have a single seat vacant in these departments. In the last two years, there has been a sudden demand for fresh IT graduates and this has attracted more students to the course this year,” said Gopakumaran Thampi, principal of Thadomal Shahani Engineering College, Bandra.

He added that while courses like mechanical and civil engineering were still facing seat vacancy, most other courses, including computer science, IT, artificial intelligence, and data science, had attracted maximum applications this year.