Monday, November 3, 2003		Feature

IT course craze dips

IT firms riding high on "spurt" in outsourcing software may be hiring techies in thousands, but in India’s Silicon Valley, institutions offering computer courses are seeing a drastic dip in student admission. Students and parents, who have witnessed the technology meltdown in the last two years and its resultant dip in employment opportunities, are cautious of taking up IT courses. They prefer to opt for basic science or mainstream engineering courses, instead.

Nearly 2,000 seats in IT-related courses of the 8,000 odd engineering seats offered in Karnataka Common Entrance Test (CET) remained vacant this year, while nearly 12 colleges under Bangalore University offering nearly 1,200 Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) and B.Sc. (computer sciences) seats scrapped the courses due to low demand by students.

"Since 2001, demand for software courses has come down drastically. In some colleges, the admission is so low that they find it not viable to run IT related courses. There is also excess supply over demand," the Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor, Dr M.S. Thimmappa, told PTI.

While IT courses are not finding favour among students, traditional engineering courses and some basic science courses, besides biotechnology are emerging as hot favourites, he said. "The demand for IT courses has come down, but it is not a negative sign. What we are witnessing is a correction in demand and supply," IT education standard body, Board for IT Education Standards (BITES) Director K.R.S. Murthy said.

Murthy said an excess capacity in seats was generated in 1999-2000 by All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and state governments fuelled by predictions of high IT growth in the country by software body Nasscom.

"Supply is more than demand for seats," A.R. Acharya, secretary, Acharya Pata Shala Education Trust Secretary, a leading private education group, said. Abandoning IT courses by students is not happening just in Karnataka but institutions in neighbouring Tamil Nadu are also facing similar low enrolments. "The situation is somewhat better in Karnataka as the state has earned a repute for quality education. In some colleges in Tamil Nadu, courses are ‘commoditised’ and offered as a package with huge discounts in fees," Acharya said.

Incidentally, with new colleges coming up in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and other states, the enrolment of outside students, a crucial factor in Karnataka’s success in engineering education, has dipped by nearly 20 per cent. "While outside students formed 35 per cent of enrolments a few years ago, it has now dropped to about 15 to 18 per cent," he said. As IT is losing its lucre, academics, who swear by basic sciences, see it an opportunity to fuel interest in students.

"A good thing is the fall in admissions in basic sciences is halted. In some courses like physics or biochemistry, colleges are seeing more students joining," Thimmappa said.

— PTI