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Goa engineering seats up by over 35% in two years

The number of engineering seats in Goa have gone up by over 35% in the last two years. The demand in the state is going up for electronics communication and mechanical engineering degree courses, while civil engineering is a less preferred stream.

The state-run Goa Engineering College (GEC), which was set up more than forty years ago, added the mining course last year with an intake of 30 seats. ""A booming mining industry in Goa provides mining engineers ample career opportunities within the state itself. But the lack of a mining course in Goa was forcing students to opt for institutes in far away states like Bihar until last year,"" deputy director for technical education in Goa, Pradip Kusnur, said.

The mining engineering course has taken up GEC's seats up to 410.

With only three engineering colleges in the state - the RIET at Shiroda with an intake of 189 seats and the Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna with 252 seats, other than GEC - Goan aspirants were forced to turn to engineering colleges in the neighbouring states of Maharashtra and Karnataka until 2010.

But before the last academic year 2011-12 could begin, the Don Bosco College of Engineering in south Goa was granted approval by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for 252 seats in computer, mechanical, electronics communication and civil engineering streams.

This year, the Fr Agnel College of Engineering in north Gao was given a nod by AICTE for 180 seats in electronics communication, mechanical and computer engineering.

All the new engineering seats have taken the number of seats up in Goa from 810 two years ago to 1272 during the current academic year.

Officials said that rise in the number of engineering seats will not mean the quality of students is compromised. ""These students from Goa would opt for courses outside the state when they could not get into the Goa colleges anyway and would become qualified engineers and come back to the state. These students can now study in the state itself,"" Kusnur said.