Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru

Mangaluru, May 24: The Karnataka government is gearing up to regulate student intake in computer science and its allied engineering programmes by introducing a maximum cap of 900 seats per institution. This move aims to ensure a balanced distribution of students across various engineering disciplines, stated higher education minister Dr M C Sudhakar.

Dr Sudhakar pointed out a steep decline in admissions for core branches like civil, mechanical, and automobile engineering, as students are increasingly drawn to computer science-related courses due to lucrative salary packages. He noted that numerous established institutions have heavily expanded their computer science programmes with overlapping curricula, resulting in thousands of seats in a single stream.

To tackle this imbalance, the government constituted a committee headed by Prof Sowmyanarayanan Sadagopan, former director of IIIT-Bangalore. As per the new guidelines, emerging engineering colleges can commence with 60 students per specialisation, and computer science-allied programmes will be permitted to expand to a maximum of 180 students over four years.

Institutions will be allowed to offer up to five computer science-related courses, with an overall ceiling of 900 seats across all such programmes. To increase the intake beyond 180 after four years, colleges are required to secure the National Board of Accreditation (NBA). Following accreditation, they can add 60 seats annually, up to a maximum limit of 300 per course.

For existing institutions with a high intake of students, a transition period will be provided to comply with the new norms. They must achieve NBA accreditation within two years, failing which the state government will slash their sanctioned seats. Furthermore, the committee has recommended updating the curriculum to seamlessly integrate artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies into traditional engineering branches.