Mumbai: Nearly 2.17 lakh engineering seats are up for grabs in 380 colleges in Maharashtra this year, with computer engineering accounting for the highest intake of 30,993 seats. The number of seats in computer-related courses such as IT, data science and artificial intelligence, put together, exceeds 50% of the total intake capacity in the state, showing the strong demand for these courses among students.The total number of seats have gone up from last year’s intake capacity of 2.03 lakh, showed data from the state’s CET cell. Around 2.45 lakh students who have registered for this year’s admission process will be given time till Thursday to fill their option forms.The post-Covid surge in demand for computer engineering has plateaued owing to job cuts in the software industry, said principal Hari Vasudevan of DJ Sanghvi College of Engineering, adding that specialised computer-related courses are becoming increasingly popular. “For the last two years, colleges have adopted a more cautious approach, with only modest increases in seats for specialised programmes such as artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning and IoT. Students still want computer-related courses, but with a combination of these emerging areas. Parallelly, demand for core engineering branches such as mechanical and electronics and telecommunication engineering is also slowly picking up among students,” he said.Five courses with the highest intake are computer engineering (30,993), mechanical engineering (24,481), electronics and telecommunication engineering (21,821), computer science and engineering (20,423), and civil engineering (17,500)The last day to fill the option form for students is July 30. Based on the options filled by students, the first allotment list will be released on Aug 2, mentioned a statement issued by the CET cell.This year, allegations of a mismatch between CET and HSC scores resurfaced after the provisional merit list was released, with some students claiming that examination centres could be manipulated. The CET cell has approached the police and cyber cell, seeking a probe into the veracity of claims made in two widely circulated videos. While the cell’s statement was recorded on Tuesday, an FIR is yet to be registered in the matter.
