Over 150 of the 1,308 BTech seats at Jadavpur University remain vacant after the centralised counselling conducted by the state Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) Board.

Streams such as computer science and engineering, electrical engineering and electronics — in which seats have gone unclaimed — were among the most sought-after in the country.

Seventeen seats are vacant in electrical engineering, once considered the next best option after computer science and engineering.

Eleven seats are vacant in electronics.

An official of the engineering and technology faculty at JU said only two seats were vacant in computer science and engineering, but the filled-up seats had students with “much lower ranks” compared to last year.

The official said: "The opening rank in the premium stream was 15 last year."

“This year, the opening rank is 49. This suggests top students in the state JEE are heading to the IITs and NITs despite getting a chance to study computer science and engineering at JU by paying a fee of ₹8,000 for four years, a cost that is phenomenally lower than what it takes to study elsewhere. JU’s loss of the pole position among the engineering institutions in the country is now an established reality,” said the official.

The fall in opening ranks is evident in electrical engineering, too.

“The opening rank in electrical engineering this year is 384. Last year, the corresponding rank was within the top 200. The opening rank in electronics is 80, almost like lastyear. But what is concerning is that after 80, the rankof the next admitted student is 242. Such a wide gap was not there last year,” the official said.

The higher education department has asked engineering institutions, including JU, to start independent counselling to fill the vacant seats.

The university is likely to hold its independent counselling on October 9. An independent or decentralised counselling means students with lower ranks.

The dean of engineering and technology at JU, Parthapratim Biswas, said: “A certain percentage of seats has been remaining vacant over the past few years. This year, following a delayed start in the admission process, we fear that the number of empty seats could be more.”

The JEE was held on April 27. Admissions to the state’s BTech programmes started after the Supreme Court stayed on August 22 a Calcutta High Court bar on implementing the Bengal government’s notification on granting OBC reservation to 140 sub-categories.

In 2024, JU conducted independent counselling to fill 150 of its 1,253 BTech seatsleft vacant after two rounds of centralised counselling. In 2023, 138 seats remained vacant.

In 2025, JU slid in the national rankings among engineering colleges to 18 from 12 in the previous year. Its scores dropped in two assessment parameters — graduation outcomes and perception.

On what measures the university was taking to arrest its fall in rankings, Biswas said: “Let a permanent vice-chancellor join the campus, then we will take up the issue. The funds cut, both from the state government and the central government, has affected our infrastructure. Excellence comes through adequate budgetary support.”