After engineering, MBA and MCA, planning also has witnessed a massive drop in number of students taking admission. Of the total 100 seats offered by two colleges in the state, 54 have remained vacant after the second round of admissions. While the Institute of Architecture and Planning at Nirma University received good response with 60 seats occupied, 14 have remained vacant. Shri Gijubhai Chhaganbhai Patel Institute of Architecture, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, on the other hand, has not got even a single admission. Of total of 40 seats, all have remained vacant, as per the data shared by the Admissions Committee for Professional Courses (ACPC). Institutes blame the criteria of admission and the entrance exam for the drop in number of students.

Commenting on the numbers, Professor Utpal Sharma, Dean, Institute of Architecture and Planning, Nirma University, said, "Basically for B.Plan course, JEE as qualifying exam is not proper. Planning needs knowledge of math or statistics, drawings, economics, geography, sociology and environmental science. Subjects such as physics, chemistry and biology are not related to planning. Therefore, students appearing through JEE will not find planning an interesting subject. We need to change the admission criteria. Then there will be many applications."

Experts at ACPC said, "Vacant seats are an issue in many courses like engineering, MBA and now planning. Colleges need to offer the best to students to get students."

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