With yet another admission season round the corner, college managements and government are gearing up to sit for a talk on various issues. The management representatives on Wednesday met Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and have apprised their stand for this year. Meanwhile, the taking over of powers from AICTE by UGC has created some confusion among the stakeholders. The formal discussion to fix the private self financing engineering colleges' fee and other related matters will be held on 11th, Wednesday.
This year, the Kerala Self Financing Engineering College Managements’ Association has decided to take up the issue of increasing number of vacant seats, an aftermath of high cut-off marks set by the state for engineering admissions.
According to association secretary T A Vijayan, the total number of engineering seats in the state is 55,680 out of which 33,000 seats are to be filled by Commissioner for Entrance Examinations under government allotment. However, last year, as many as 8,462 seats under government quota remained vacant.
This is due to the high cut-off marks set in the state. The cut-off mark for Mathematics was 50 per cent till last year. When we appealed to the government to lower the cut-off mark, it was brought down to 45 per cent. However, this did not help much as the aggregate minimum set for Physics and Chemistry was increased from 50 per cent to 60 per cent," Vijayan told Mathrubhumi Education Online.
"All India Council for Technical Education, which was the statutory body controlling the technical education across the country, had set a minimum mark for each subject for students to get admission. However, our state government is following its own rules. Why can't we just follow a nationwide common stipulation rather than going for a different system," he asked.
"We will suggest the government to follow the earlier AICTE norms for engineering admission. Last year, 75,000 students cleared the entrance examination but only 55, 680 were selected eligible for admission. This is due to high cut-off marks. Hence, the only solution to fill all the available seats is to bring down the cut-off marks," he said.
There would be no proposal to hike fee, he said. "We are told that the govt plans to include all the details in the prospectus to be issued by CEE. As the admission for next academic year is fast approaching, we need to go for quick solution on the problem of increasing number of vacant seats," he added.
Though the number of colleges has gone up significantly in the last few years, many of them are finding it hard to find enough number of students. At a time when the employability of engineering students is facing severe censure, many opine that the lowering of cut-off marks will only bring down the quality. |
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