With core engineering seats remaining unfilled, professors in Telangana have taken on delivery jobs to make ends meet

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HYDERABAD: Since 2020, Telangana has witnessed a dramatic drop of over 70% in core engineering seats, leaving many experienced faculty members in an extremely difficult situation. Once revered professors with years of advanced academic qualifications, they now find themselves struggling to make ends meet, with many resorting to alternative jobs.

Former senior faculty members, who once enjoyed stable careers in prestigious engineering colleges, are now working as delivery executives, transporting food and groceries, or running roadside snack stalls to survive. Their daily earnings, which range from ₹500 to ₹1,000, pale in comparison to the ₹40,000 to ₹1.5 lakh monthly salaries they once received.

While a few have managed to secure temporary freelance positions or outsourced work, a large number of them remain unemployed, nearly two years after being let go. The shift in student interest towards newer fields like AI, data science, IoT, and cybersecurity has left traditional branches such as mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering in decline.

The latest figures show that out of 86,943 engineering seats filled through the EAPCET examination, a staggering 61,587 are allocated to computer science and related fields, while core engineering branches like civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering have only around 7,458, 4,751, and fewer seats, respectively. Despite this, many seats remain unfilled every year, and the core engineering seat capacity in Telangana’s 175 B Tech colleges has been slashed by up to 75%.

The impact on faculty has been devastating. Many have been forced to accept pay cuts or leave their positions altogether. Achyuth V, who once taught mechanical engineering at a city college, recalls how his salary was reduced from ₹40,000 to ₹20,000, and then further cut to ₹10,000. Unable to support his family on this meager amount, he resigned and now earns ₹600 a day as a delivery executive. “I could no longer survive on ₹10,000 a month,” said Achyuth, who has not disclosed his current job to his young children.

The Telangana Technical Institution Employees Association has raised alarms over the severe plight of faculty members, particularly those in their forties and fifties with years of teaching experience. “After dedicating their lives to academia, many are now forced to take up odd jobs because neither the industry nor academia seems willing to tap into their expertise,” said D. Srinivas Varma.

An official from the state’s technical education department has assured that efforts are underway to adjust courses and seat allocation to align with current industry demands starting next academic year. “This year, we have restricted the replacement of core engineering seats with CSE seats and limited the intake per course to 120. We plan to adopt a more balanced and stringent approach in the years to come,” the official explained.

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