Over 2 L seats in degree colleges go vacant as DOST drive ends

 ​Hyderabad: A little over two lakh seats remained vacant in the degree colleges across the State after the final and special drive of Degree Online Services Telangana (DOST)-2018. According to the data finalised by the Telangana State Council for Higher Education (TSCHE) on Monday, out of 4,03,002 seats available in various undergraduate courses in 1,041 degree colleges in the State, only 2,02,662 students were allotted seats. 

As many as 53 colleges with an intake of 10,820 seats registered zero admissions after the final allotment process of DOST-2018. The Osmania University (OU) with 386 colleges affiliated to it has an intake of 1, 37,894 seats. Out of this, only 81,441 students took admissions during the current academic year of 2018-19. The Kakatiya University has the second highest in intake after OU, with 290 degree colleges and 1, 18,353 seats at the degree level. 

Out of this, only 53,009 students took admissions after the final round. Satavahana University, which has the third highest intake of 45,471 seats in 113-degree colleges affiliated to it, could only fill 21,886 seats. Continuing the trend, out of 24,795 seats in 84 colleges affiliated to it, only 15,801 students took the admission in the degree colleges under the Palamuru University jurisdiction. Similarly, out of 29,772 seats in 69 affiliated colleges under Telangana University on 15,544 seats were filled, the TSCHE data said. 

It may be mentioned here that the final and special drive has been conducted following a representation from the private unaided degree colleges as tens and thousands of seats remained vacant. 

Also, in some cases, students could not get the colleges that they wanted to join following the online allotment of seats through DOST-2018. However, during the final and special drive out of 4,125 seats allotted for students in various courses only 2,578 confirmed that they were joining, the TSCHE data said.