In a move to prevent oversupply of computer science engineering graduates and address growing concerns over unemployment, the state Higher Education department is considering freezing the increase of Computer Science Engineering (CSE) seats in engineering colleges in Tier-1 cities. The proposal draws inspiration from Telangana, where a similar restriction has already been implemented and upheld by the state’s high court, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
Higher Education Minister MC Sudhakar said that indiscriminate increase in CSE seats — often by converting less in-demand seats in civil and mechanical engineering — has created an imbalance in the system. If the trend continues, the state will have lakhs of graduates from CS and related disciplines and eventually the industry will face a crisis, where most of them could be left unemployed, the minister warned, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
Pointing to Telangana High Court’s recent decision as a precedent, the minister mentioned that the court had dismissed multiple writ petitions filed by private engineering colleges that challenged the state’s rejection of proposals to increase CS intake for the 2024-25 academic year.
The Telangana Court ruled in favour of the state’s authority to regulate engineering education.
In Karnataka, there are currently 1,32,309 engineering seats across 245 colleges for the 2024-25 academic year, of which nearly 45,000 are in CSE and allied disciplines. The spike in CSE seats is largely due to relaxed norms by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which removed the cap on engineering admissions and allowed colleges to increase seats based on demand.
This has led to some private colleges — especially in Tier-1 cities — expanding their CSE intake to as many as 1,500-2,000 seats often bypassing state government seats limits by obtaining approval directly from AICTE. These expansions sometimes exceed the infrastructure capacity prescribed by the state, as per a report by The New Indian Express .
The number of Common Entrance Test (CET) seats in CSE and related courses has also seen a sharp rise — from around 24,000 in 2021–22 to nearly 39,500 last year. In total, there were 79,907 CET seats across all engineering streams in the previous academic year. The seat matrix for 2025–26 is yet to be announced.
