Despite six rounds of seat allocation conducted by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority 2016 (JoSAA), around 2,700 engineering seats out of the total of 34,781 seats remain vacant. These seats are vacant across 92 centrally funded technical institutes including IITs and NITs.

Around 92 seats are vacant in IITs after the conclusion of the final round of allocation. Around 3,200 seats were vacant last year, when there were only four rounds. Last year, 9.4% seats were vacant, which has dropped to 8.2% this year. 

It was only from this year that the students were allowed to exercise the option of withdrawing a seat from the allocation process.

“Every year, a large number of seats remain vacant and the situation is unlikely to change in the coming years. Students opt for courses which can land them high paying jobs and on the other hand, institutes design a course taking the research part into consideration. Location of the institute also plays an important part when students choose a seat,” said a senior official of the Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB 2016).

The number of vacant seats might increase over time as many students are opting for private engineering institutes over state-run premier institutes in far-off locations.