Mumbai: The engineering aspirants in Maharashtra continue to favour computer science (CS) and its allied subjects, including the new age specialisations of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and data science.
At the end of the third round of admission to the undergraduate engineering (BE/BTech) programmes in the state, around 1.12 lakh students have been admitted. The enrollment is likely to increase after admissions to the 20% institute quota seats take place.
The enrollment figures are yet to surpass last year's 1.17 lakh-mark despite the intake capacity rising from 1.58 lakh in 2023-24 to 1.64 lakh in 2024-25; an increase of around 6,000 seats. Currently, more than 51,000 or 31% of the available spots are still up for grabs.
Of those who secured admission in the centralised admission process (CAP), around one-third (over 39,000) opted for various branches related to computer science engineering, while another 10,000 chose courses involving AI/ML and data science. The enrollment for electronics and telecommunication, another popular 'circuit' branch', is over 17,000. Around 25-30% of the seats in these courses, however, are still vacant.
On the other hand, the enrollment to mechanical, civil and electrical streams is substantially lower at around 13,000, 9,000 and 8,000 respectively. However, compared to last year, there's a slight but notable increase in the number of those enrolled for 'core' branches. In 2023, around 12,300, 7,207 and 7,774 students were admitted to mechanical, civil and electrical streams, respectively.
The pattern was foretold during the application process for BE/BTech admissions in the state. According to the Common Entrance Test (CET) cell data, 19.27 lakh (26.7%) out of over 72 lakh choices were for computer engineering. This is closely followed by information technology (13,42,333), and electronics and telecommunication (10,56,160).
A rather new branch of engineering, AI and data science is in competition with the top three – with over 6 lakh applications received for it. Whereas there were fewer applications for conventional branches of engineering – mechanical (3,70,577), electrical (2,29,940) and civil (2,03,133). A total of 1,92,398 candidates have registered.
