Hyderabad: More than half of Telangana’s undergraduate degree seats under the DOST admission system remain vacant this year, even after multiple rounds of counselling.Officials attribute this vacancy mainly to colleges holding onto surplus and defunct seats rather than surrendering them.The latest DOST special drive phase, announced on Aug 14, allotted seats to 14,975 students, taking the total number of admissions this year to 1,84,375 against 3,73,149 seats on offer. That leaves 1,88,774 seats unfilled, nearly 51% of the total intake.A TGCHE official said much of the vacancy traces back to colleges retaining additional intake sanctioned over the years, even in courses where demand has since dropped off. “Colleges have had additional intake for several years, but they are not surrendering excess seats to universities,” the official said.Some colleges, the official added, continue to hold on to courses that have recorded zero admissions for years rather than formally closing them, citing the fees involved in applying to close or reopen a course as one reason for keeping them available regardless.Shifting student preferences are compounding the problem, the official said. “A large chunk of students prefer engineering, medicine, pharmacy and agriculture over conventional degree courses.”A committee has now been set up to examine reducing intake or shutting down courses that have gone three consecutive years without a single admission, across the state. No decision has yet been taken on cutting the overall degree-seat intake, TGCHE officials said.Of the seats filled in the latest special drive, 12,069 students secured their first-choice course or college, while 2,906 got seats against their second or later preferences. Another 1,337 students who submitted web options were left without a seat because of how limited their choices were, out of 16,312 candidates who applied in this round.Before this special phase, 1,15,433 seats had already been filled, on top of 53,967 allotted in an earlier special phase, adding up to this year’s total of 1,84,375.By faculty, commerce accounted for the largest share of the latest allotments at 6,198, followed by life sciences (3,080), arts (2,878), physical sciences (2,798) and others (21).
