33% BTech seats vacant in 2021-22; gradual decrease in approved seats for engineering colleges

NEW DELHI: 33.6 percent seats were not filled in undergraduate engineering colleges in the academic year 2021-22, minister of state for education Subhas Sarkar told the Rajya Sabha today.

The minister was replying to a question on how many seats are vacant in BTech engineering colleges in the last five years. Responding to a question on why the BTech seats were vacant, Sarkar said: “The filling up of seats in engineering institutes is dependent on demand- supply situation which is dependent on location of the institutes, academic and infrastructural facilities therein and the placement opportunities.”

According to the data shared by the minister 33.6% BTech seats remained vacant in the academic year 2021-22. More than 4 lakh seats remain vacant in 2021-22 against the sanctioned number of 12,53,337 BTech seats. It is noteworthy that nearly 8 lakh engineering aspirants write Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE Main) for admission to various engineering courses.

44 percent seats remain unfilled in the academic year 2020-21 and 44.2% in 2019-21, as per the data. The total number of approved seats for engineering courses have also been gradually decreasing in the past five years.

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Vacant BTech seats in last 5 years

Here are the details of the number of seats approved and vacant in engineering colleges in the last five years.