Subhas Sarkar, Minister of State for Education, informed the Rajya Sabha today that during the 2021-22 academic year, 33.6 percent of undergraduate engineering college seats were unfilled.
In response to a query about how many unoccupied seats there have been in BTech engineering colleges over the past five years, the minister stated that the number of seats filled in such institutes depends on the demand-supply ratio, which itself is reliant on the location of the institutes, the academic and infrastructural facilities available, and the job placement potential.
The Ministry has reported that 33.6% of BTech seats stayed empty in the 2021-22 academic year. In 2021-22, more than 4 lakh of the 12,53,337 permitted BTech seats were not filled. It is remarkable that almost 8 lakh applicants take the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE Main) for admission to different engineering courses.
Data shows that 44% of seats were unfilled in the 2020-21 academic year and 44.2% in 2019-21. Additionally, the total number of seats allocated for engineering courses has been decreasing over the past five years.
Here are the details of the number of seats approved and vacant in engineering colleges in the last five years.
| Year | Number of approved seats | Vacant seats |
| 2017-18 | 14,65,873 | 7,22,112 |
| 2018-19 | 13,95,345 | 6,78,932 |
| 2019-20 | 13,28,247 | 5,87,314 |
| 2020-21 | 12,86,545 | 5,66,538 |
| 2021-22 | 12,53,337 | 4,21,203 |
