Hyderabad: Not even 30% of the 3.71 lakh degree seats in the state have been filled after the second phase of Degree Online Services, Telangana (DOST). According to the details released by the Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE) on Friday, 43,568 students were allotted seats in the second phase of counselling. Of these, 6,077 had got seats in the first phase but participated again in the counselling to secure a seat in a better college. In the first phase, 60,436 students were allotted seats.“There is hardly any demand for degree courses. Maybe, if DOST counselling was held after EAPCET and after release of Intermediate supplementary results, a few more seats would be filled,” said Y Ramakrishna, secretary, Telangana Degree College Managements Association. He said that there were way too many seats in undergraduate courses in degree colleges across the state. He also advocated stringent eligibility criteria for professional courses such as engineering to ensure students don’t opt for them as the default choice irrespective of their capability to study.Also, while there are 3.71 lakh degree seats, only 2.85 lakh students cleared Intermediate this year, with most going for professional courses. Despite poor demand, colleges do not apply for course closure or reduction of seats as they will have to seek approvals again if they want to offer certain courses in the future.In Telangana, there are 805 degree colleges under DOST which offer 457 courses. TGCHE officials said they would be opening up degree courses to non-local students after the third phase of counselling.“We went ahead with DOST counselling as there are students who want to join only degree courses. We did not want to keep them waiting. If needed, we will have special phase counselling for supplementary students and those waiting for EAPCET,” said V Balakista Reddy, DOST convenor and chairman, TGCHE. He said they were trying to reform degree education by updating the syllabus and introducing skill-based courses, but it would take a few years to see the results.
