GATE statistics reveal shift in trends

The prestigious Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) exam went completely online for the first time this year. Registrations of the GATE exam have highlighted the shift in the enrollment trends for the exam. A total of 10,33,625 candidates registered for GATE 2014 but about 8,89,156 candidates (86.02%) finally appeared for the test. The total number of candidates appearing in GATE (across all subjects) was on the rise till 2013. In 2014, however, the numbers have gone down by about 10% (Refer table 1). Further, the current year’s statistics also highlight a significant drop in the number of female aspirants for the GATE exam. As per a report released by a leading newspaper, one of the possible explanations for this phenomenon could be the introduction of application fees for all. Prior to 2014, the female candidates never had to pay any application fees for this exam. This year, Rs. 750 was mandated as examination fees for female candidates as well.

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In terms of the enrollment trends, five engineering streams have consistently witnessed highest registrations, namely,  Electronics and Communication Engineering (2,16,367), Mechanical Engineering (1,85,578), Computer Science and Information Technology (1,55,190), Electrical Engineering (1,41,799) and Civil Engineering (90,872). However, within the streams, a shift of preferences is evident over the previous year (see Table 2 for reference). Civil and mechanical engineering have seen a steady increase in enrollments; ECE has seen a small drop; while CS & IT has seen the biggest decline

Source: http://gate.iitkgp.ac.in/gate2014/press_release.pdf

Table 1: Trends in number of candidates appearing in GATE

Table 2: Comparison data table of GATE 2013 and 2014 for ECE, ME, CSE, EE and CE