The ongoing admissions in engineering colleges are showing early signs of a shift in preferences among students and parents. Interest in traditional engineering disciplines such as mechanical, civil, chemical, and aerospace engineering, remains robust, with seats in these streams getting filled up as briskly as those in computer science.

A combination of factors are driving this openness to look beyond computer science. The integration of computing technologies across all engineering disciplines by incorporating minor courses on AI/ML into curriculum, students taking on a long-term to follow their passions, and the emergence of more job opportunities in core engineering steams are some of the key few drivers, academicians and students told businessline.

Students also feel that one needs to have a strong domain knowledge in whichever area they apply and many believe that external upskilling tools are better tuned to industry advancements than traditional college curricula.

Core comeback

Dr S Sasikumar, Director of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Admissions, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), said that while computer science courses are still sought out, this year, seats in core courses are also getting filled “at a pace on par with CS.”

VIT has concluded two phases of admissions and plans to close all phases by June. “Biotech, bio engineering, and health informatics are a few courses that are seeing high takers. Electronics and Communications Engineering, Mechanical and Civil too are seeing traction,” he said.

According to Sasikumar, a 2023 decision by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to allow all engineering branches to offer elective/minor courses in emerging areas such as AI, ML, Data Science and others, has contributed to this shift. For example, any civil engineering student can now do minor courses on AI/ML or data science. “This year, we are seeing these minor courses playing a role in bringing students to diverse streams,” he noted.

“There is a definite resurgence of the core engineering streams especially in terms of the availability and access to the disciplines has become more with the access to media and social media and news around these core engineering areas,” Dr. Asif Rampurawala, Vice Principal, Vidyalankar School of Information Technology (VSIT), said. However, he cautions that core engineering fields cannot absorb as many graduates as Information Technology.

IIT-Madras professor Mahesh Panchagnula says a correction is always inevitable whenever an educational trend is pushed to extremes. “Today the starting salaries look relatively more attractive for CS students, but in the long-term, those in core engineering also earn as much and the careers soar for those with depth in domain understanding,” he said.

The evolution of India’s infrastructure and sustainability sector is also driving some of this mindset change.

Rakesh Sreedharan, Head of Marketing and Admissions, Mahindra University, said, “We are observing a renewed enthusiasm for core engineering disciplines like Mechanical and Civil Engineering among our students at Mahindra University. This resurgence is a response to the evolving landscape of technology-enabled infrastructure and sustainability-driven projects.”

Today, students are making “conscious efforts to align with global priorities and best practices such as sustainable building, clean mobility, and advanced manufacturing,” he added.

Ambition drives change

VIT’s Sasikumar agrees. He credits the clarity and ambitions of the current generation of students for this change.

Take Aarav Kulkarni, an 18-year-old mechanical engineering student, who made his choice last year based on passion. “I picked mechanical because I wanted to build things — cars, turbines, maybe even work in the defence someday,” he says. “Everyone told me to go for computer science, but I knew that’s not where my interest lies.”

There are others, like Bengaluru-based Dhruv, who are choosing dual degree courses in Math and computation. “Though learning CS is important, I think companies are looking for candidates with a deeper knowledge in a specific field like finance, insurance or any other domain,” he says. He is also apprehensive about how updated colleges are today with AI advancements.

For some like Chennai-based Anil (name changed), Civil engineering is his first preference because it’s his passion but his parents insist that he should take computer science if he gets it.

...But, CS still reigns — for now

Prof Jawahar Doreswamy, Chancellor of PES University in Bengaluru, considers the lure of higher IT salaries as a diversion for interested in core engineering. The interest in computer science remains strong, with around 80 per cent of job offers still in CS-related fields, but core branches like mechanical, electrical, and electronics are seeing renewed enrolment, he said.

Prof (Dr) KN Subramanya, Principal, RV College of Engineering, Bengaluru, suggests that core engineering is set to make a comeback, with newer skill sets. “The placement outcomes in the core engineering sector are also evolving as such enterprises now seek candidates who bring digital tools as a superlayer to their domain expertise,” he adds.

Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Partner at Catalincs and former CMD, Cognizant India, sees the growth of GCCs as a boost to this trend.

“The rapid growth of Indian companies across core sectors and global companies establishing their GCCs in India and scaling them, is creating potential opportunities for students across mechanical, industrial, electronics, bioengineering streams,” he said. “This broader canvas of opportunities is leading to students to opt for engineering courses beyond computer science and software engineering,” he said.

There are others who say that the market is yet to entirely reset towards core streams but meaningful changes will be seen in the next two years. Dr BN Chaudhari, Principal of Sardar Patel Institute of Technology, says that while students today are “more informed,” many still follow “herd mentality” leading to a rush for CS seats.

(With inputs from Rohan Das, an intern with businessline)

More Like This

Published on May 21, 2025