Based on a recent Telangana model, the Karnataka Higher Education Department is contemplating freezing the enhancement of Computer Science Engineering (CSE) seats in engineering colleges.

 

This move aims to address concerns about unemployment and even out the distribution of seats of engineering disciplines.

 

On Thursday, Karnataka’s Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar has said that Telangana’s restriction, upheld by the Telangana High Court, as a precedent. 

 

In the 2024–25 academic year, Karnataka offered a total of 1,32,309 engineering seats across 245 colleges, with approximately 45,000 allocated to Computer Science and related fields. 

 

This sharp increase is largely due to relaxed norms by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), allowing colleges to expand their intake. As a result, some institutions now offer as many as 1,500 to 2,000 CSE seats, often by reallocating seats from traditional engineering branches.

 

It may be recalled that on April 25, 2024, the Telangana High Court dismissed a batch of writ petitions filed by private engineering colleges challenging the state government’s decision to reject proposals for increased intake in Computer Science courses for the 2024–25 academic year. The court upheld the government’s authority to regulate engineering education, affirming that the decision fell within the state’s regulatory powers.

 

The measure is intended to curb the unprecedented increase in CSE seats. This comes in the wake of a decline in demand for traditional engineering streams such as civil and mechanical.

 

Dr Sudhakar said, “Several colleges in Karnataka are indiscriminately increasing computer science seats, often by converting civil and mechanical engineering seats, which have reduced demand, into CS seats. If this trend continues, we’ll have lakhs of engineering graduates from CS and related disciplines. Eventually, the industry will face a crisis, where most of them could be left unemployed.”