56% of engineering seats vacant in Gujarat

Data tabled in the Gujarat assembly by the state government on Tuesday revealed that the proportion of vacant seats at government engineering colleges increased from 21.31% in 2021-22 to nearly 50% in 2022-23.

It also revealed that even with 50% of seats vacant at self-financed institutions (SFIs), 3,049 more such seats were added in 2022-23.

To a question by Lunawada MLA Gulabsinh Chauhan, the government said that as of December 31, 2023, the state has 69,410 engineering seats.

Of these, 57,999 are at self-financed colleges, 9,839 at government colleges and 1,572 at grant-in-aid colleges.

The number of seats at government colleges increased by 753 in 2022-23 from the previous year.

The data showed that in 2021-22 there were 65,608 seats at government, grant-in-aid and self-financed colleges, with 47% or 30,829 remaining vacant.

In 2022-23, of 69,410 total engineering seats, 56.7% or 39,360 remained vacant. Officials said the number of vacant seats increased by 8,531 while 3,802 seats were added in the year.