Very few takers for 'unpopular' IIT courses, 250 seats vacant

Despite a mad rush for admission to the IITs, around 250 seats remained vacant this year largely because some courses are not popular among the students. Vanita Srivastava reports.

Despite a mad rush for admission to the IITs, around 250 seats remained vacant this year largely because some courses are not popular among the students.

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Courses like pharmaceutics, pulp and paper engineering, ocean engineering, process engineering with MBA, mineral engineering with MBA, petroleum engineering and mining engineering in some IITs have few takers. More than 100 seats were vacant at ISM Dhanbad but some could be filled up during spot counseling from July 26. Over 100 seats were vacant in IIT-BHU, 20-22 seats remained vacant in IIT Kharagpur and around 20 in IIT Roorkee.

The four new IITs at Mandi, Ropar, Hyderabad and Indore do not have any empty seats.

"Students prefer mainstream engineering. While all courses have their own benefits and a well designed job market, too much specialization at an undergraduate level is not preferred by students," says an IIT director. Former director of IIT Kanpur, Sanjay Dhande said, "The individual institutes should take the responsibility of getting seats filled."