Over 10,000 seats across different courses remained vacant in various Indian Institutes of Technology or IITs during the last two years.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told the Rajya Sabha that over 8,700 seats were vacant in National Institutes of Technology or NITs.
The premier engineering colleges like IITs and NITs impart education and research in science and technology subjects and are categorised as Institutions of National Importance.
The number of seats staying vacant in IITs has been a growing concern for officials from the HRD ministry.
Also Watch: Unemployment woes: did you know there are over 8 lakh Central govt posts lying vacant?
While the number of vacant seats in NITs has gone down considerably year-on-year, the IITs have not been able to attract enough students to unpopular engineering streams or branches such as Architecture, Chemical Engineering, Geophysics, Mining, Metallurgy and other such courses.
IITs and NITs do not want to compromise on the quality of students as it will affect their overall reputation. They would rather let the seats go vacant then lowering their admission parameters.
In December 2021, a CAG report also highlighted the issue of seats remaining vacant in eight new IITs. In their responses submitted through the education ministry, most of these IITs cited unavailability of suitable candidates for vacant seats.
The number of private engineering institutes is another probable reason why seats at IITs and NITs remain vacant.