Seats outnumber students in Telangana degree colleges

Hyderabad: Telangana is currently facing a peculiar situation in its degree colleges, where there are more seats than students. This has resulted in half of the seats remaining vacant every year. Some colleges are attempting to introduce new courses to attract students, but the issue still remains prevalent.

This year, 3,80,920 students have written the Intermediate second year examination, out of which 67 percent, i.e. 2,56,241 students have passed. Additionally, another 28,738 students from vocational courses have also passed. However, there are over 4 lakh degree seats in the state, which has now been reduced to 3.86 lakh. Despite this reduction, the number of degree seats still exceeds the number of students who pass the Intermediate examination.

Typically, among the students who have completed Intermediate second year, some students opt for IIT or NIT engineering courses through JEE, while others enroll in Engineering or Agriculture through EAMCET, or BSc courses and medical courses through NEET (MBBS). As a result, about one lakh students are enrolled in these courses, with the majority of the remaining students choosing to enroll in degree courses, leading to an excess of degree seats.

The Degree Online Services Telangana (DOST) schedule has been issued for admission to degree courses. To attract more students to degree education, new courses have been introduced alongside regular courses. This year, a four-year honours course called BSc Computer Science has been introduced, which officials claim will be almost equivalent to studying engineering. This new course is expected to attract students who were seeking admission in engineering courses.

It is important to note that a new system has been introduced in the degree course, which allows students to enroll in one course and study a few subjects in other courses as well. Additionally, data science courses have also been introduced. Through the introduction of new courses alongside regular courses, efforts are being made to increase students’ interest in degree education.