With an increasing number of seats falling vacant in the IT branches of engineering colleges across the state, the college authorities are left with no option but to drop the branches.
With the IT boom receding and pay packages becoming less attractive and placements, especially in core companies, decreasing, there are now very few takers for the course.
A few colleges have already sent their requests to respective universities for winding up IT branches.
TKM Engineering College had shut down its IT branch last year. Three other colleges have also put in similar requests with Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat).
“Poonjar Engineering College and Kallooppara College under the IHRDE, have requested for winding up their IT branches,” said Cusat Registrar A Ramachandran.
According to sources, many colleges under Kerala University have sent requests for switching from IT courses to computer courses.
“Mar Baselious College, Thiruvananthapuram, has sent a request for opening a computer branch instead of IT, which has been taken up by the Syndicate,” sources said. The situation has undergone a drastic change. With a large number of colleges starting IT courses owing to the low infrastructure investment needed, the supply became much more than the demand.
“Placements too have come down as the supply of professionals outnumbers the demand. Around 20,000 seats, including IT, are currently lying vacant in the state. Nearly all the major companies, including Wipro and TCS, have cut down on placements. There are only about 100 job offers where there should have been about 300,” said P S Sreejith, principal, School of Engineering, Cusat.
Meanwhile, the Director of Technical Education said that many IT seats in self-financing colleges were lying vacant as students now prefer conventional to IT.