Hyderabad: Engineering aspirants in the state seem to have overcome their post recession fear against computer science courses. CSE that has a very few takers after the 2007 global meltdown, is one of the most preferred courses this year. While a total of 16,600 seats were filled in the stream (first phase) last year, this year about 30,800 students have lapped up CSE admission so far.
Even more sought after courses like electrical and electronic engineering have just about 18,900 takers after the first phase of counselling. Even the preference data of the first phase of counselling indicate that more number of students could opt for computer science in the next phase. As per the web counselling guidelines, students can opt for a course of their choice in as many colleges as they want in any order of preference. This list is used even for the second phase of counselling.
In this year’s order of preference, electrical and electronics engineering had less takers than computer science engineering. Counselling officials said that the rise in number of students going in for computer science course could be the direct impact of good placements the students from the stream got in the academic year 2010-11. “Most of the top colleges could bag 100% placements for students pursuing computer science last year. This has naturally increased the demand for CSE. So this year the course would attract more students,” said Vijayakumar, in-charge counselling officer with Eamcet.
According to officials, even students who have cleared IIT-JEE have opted for computer science this year. “Some of the top rankers themselves have opted for this course in IITs. This shows that there is still a market for computer science,” he said. According to the official, several colleges have also asked for an increase in their seat share for computer science.
Officials said that the number of takers for computer and IT courses could increase in the second phase of counselling, that is beginning on September 3. “There are more seats available in these streams even now and in the next phase admissions would take place in just the most popular courses,” said an official.