Nearly 3 lakh degree seats remain vacant in Telangana after DOST counselling

Even after multiple rounds of admissions, nearly three lakh degree seats are lying vacant in Telangana, reflecting poor demand for conventional undergraduate programmes in the State. A total of 4,37,809 seats were up for grabs in 929 degree colleges. However, only 1,41,143 had takers as of Thursday.

As per the information available with the Telangana Council of Higher Education, this time, only 1,19,016 out of 3,71,919 seats in 780 degree colleges were filled after three rounds of Degree Online Services Telangana (DOST) counselling. Similarly, 79 welfare



residential degree colleges filled 9,271 out of 23,834 available seats. Seventy colleges, which are not part of the DOST system, admitted 12,856 students, leaving 42,056 seats vacant.

Further, not all Intermediate pass-outs choose conventional degree courses, as thousands of them opt for professional programmes such as engineering, pharmacy, BSc Agriculture, biotechnology and Pharm.D. This has reduced the number of students available for admission into degree colleges, leading to a mismatch between the number of students and the intake in degree programmes.