HYDERABAD: Traditional Arts courses and aided colleges have emerged as the biggest losers in Telangana’s undergraduate admissions this year. Data from the first three phases of the Degree Online Services, Telangana (DOST) reveals a clear student preference for commerce, science, and autonomous institutions.
According to the Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE), more than 2.13 lakh out of 3.7 lakh sanctioned degree seats remain vacant, with only 1,56,531 filled so far. The trend reflects a sharp decline in the popularity of traditional Arts education as students increasingly prioritise professional and job-oriented programmes.
The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) recorded one of the weakest responses, filling just 22,704 seats against an intake of 53,175. Niche programmes fared even worse; Bachelor of Vocational (B.Voc) courses attracted only 12 students for 50 seats, while Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) filled just 75 and 63 seats against 180 seats and 240 seats, respectively.
Regular B.Sc. courses also witnessed poor demand, seeing only 2,059 admissions against 4,380 seats. By contrast, Commerce and Science streams sustained strong student interest. B.Com dominated the admissions landscape with 52,167 enrolments, followed closely by B.Sc. Physical Sciences at 34,194 and B.Sc. Life Sciences at 28,000.
This dominance was mirrored in the Phase-III counselling alone, where Commerce accounted for the largest share of 37,510 allotments out of the 93,516 total seats distributed in that round.
Private unaided colleges led enrolment with 70,471 students, followed by government autonomous colleges with 39,098. Conversely, private aided colleges filled only 6,855 out of the 10,740 seats after three rounds of counselling.
University colleges recorded a modest 4,170 admissions across 11 institutions, while the lone Railway College sat at the bottom with just 204 students.
A senior TGCHE official noted that autonomous institutions continue to benefit heavily from their academic flexibility, industry-oriented curricula and better placement track records.
TGCHE has directed all allotted students to complete their online self-reporting between June 26 and July 2. Following this online step, students must physically report to their respective colleges from June 27 to July 4 to confirm their admissions, the official added.
TG LAWCET, PGLCET COUNSELLING FROM JULY 5
Hyderabad: The Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE) has announced that it will commence the admission counselling for programmes — LAWCET-2026 and PGLCET-2026 — from July 5, with the official notification scheduled to be released on Friday. Officials said the counselling schedule has been finalised for admissions into three-year and five-year LLB courses as well as the two-year LLM programme for the 2026–27 academic year. Online registration, payment of processing fee and uploading of certificates for LLB will start from July 5 to 10. LLM candidates can complete the process between July 27 and July 31.