Pune: As the engineering admission process for the academic year 2024-25 nears its conclusion, more than 51,000 seats remain vacant, highlighting a significant trend in student preferences.

Despite the completion of the third round of the Centralized Admission Process (CAP) two days ago, a large number of seats have yet to find takers. To address this, an additional special CAP round will be conducted, followed by institute-level admissions to fill the remaining vacancies.

This year, engineering colleges in Maharashtra offered a total of 164,336 seats. By the end of the third round, 112,981 students had confirmed their admissions, leaving 51,355 seats unclaimed.

This marks a continued decline in the response to traditional engineering courses, with projections suggesting that more seats may remain unfilled compared to previous years.

Over the last several years, the appeal of engineering as a career path has waned, with many students opting out, resulting in more than half of the available seats often remaining vacant.

One of the primary reasons for this shift is the booming IT sector, which offers attractive salary packages and extensive career opportunities. As a result, engineering colleges have been consistently increasing the intake capacity for computer-related courses.

The highest demand is currently observed in branches like IT, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, and Cyber Security.

The data reveals that computer engineering and related fields have the largest number of available seats, and they are also the most sought-after by students.

For instance, this year, there are 46,290 seats available in computer engineering, with 33,355 students securing their spots by the end of the third round.

Similarly, in the newly introduced branch of Artificial Intelligence, 18,668 seats were on offer, of which 13,531 have been filled, reflecting the growing interest in this field.

In contrast, other traditional engineering branches are witnessing a steep decline in student interest. This trend indicates a shift in the education landscape, where students are increasingly prioritizing courses that are closely aligned with the evolving demands of the technology-driven job market.