BENGALURU:The number of unallotted engineering seats through Karnataka’s Undergraduate Common Entrance Test (UGCET) has risen sharply, with 26.35% of the total available seats meant for Engineering & Architecture going unclaimed this year, as compared to 18.12% of the total seats remaining free last year (2025). While industry veterans maintain an air of complacency about the drop in intake, it is apparent that those in government quarters are monitoring the phenomenon with significant caution.
For context, as per data shared with TNIE by the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), the total number of available Engineering & Architecture seats in 2025 was 85,020, out of which 15,403 remained unallotted. In 2026, out of 94,318 available seats, 24,856 were left vacant. “Before questioning why the number of unfilled seats has increased, one must also note that the number of engineering colleges has gone up every year. Compared to last year, at least 10 new engineering colleges have been added [in the state] this year. Naturally, the number of seats has also increased. That is why the [number of] unfilled seats appears higher,” claimed Dr. S Vidyashankar, vice-chancellor at the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU).
Dr. Vidyashankar also told TNIE that “the claim that students are turning away from engineering is false. In fact, the overall number of students entering higher education itself has declined.” However, the vice-chancellor’s claim is undermined by the fact that even if one considers that simply the influx of new colleges (and thereby new seats) has led to a concurrent inflation in vacancy, the hypothesis falls flat when one realises that despite the lower number of seats in circulation last year, more seats were claimed in 2025 than 2026. Out of 85,020 available seats last year, 69,617 were claimed; on the other hand, while the number of available seats in 2026 witnessed an inflation to 94,318, the number of allotted seats in fact deflated to 69,462. In essence, when 9,298 seats were added to circulation, 155 fewer students chose to claim the seats this year.
While job insecurity and obsoletion have been repeatedly brought forward as obvious consequences of the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), hardly have the effects of the industry-wide panic been exposed so systematically as the aforementioned statistics, revealing a possible refusal of engineering altogether as a stream where anything can – and probably will – change at the drop of a hat. Chief Secretary to Karnataka Government Dr. Shalini Rajneesh told TNIE that the state government was aware of the phenomenon and had been looking at the figures with concern.
“We are looking at introducing demand-oriented curricula for engineering courses at higher-education institutions across the state. Awareness drives would be conducted to educate students of the curricula changes and address their concerns,” Dr. Rajneesh said. She also said that it was difficult to construct a stable roadmap for this, as industry demands keep shifting rapidly.
