2,600 Seats Lying Vacant In Orissa’s Pvt Engg Colleges

Financial Express – 4th August 09.

This makes me wonder, if we really need a JEE. I guess JEE is creating a great barrier for aspirants. I guess its a competitive exam to define grading of students abilities. However there has been no proven correlation to the students career success and such grading. The solution to this is each institute conducting their own short entrance approval test using more psychometric testing tools. At the same time working on their own branding with a positive display of academic and placement successes.

Bhubaneswar: : Chaos and uncertainty have proved disastrous for the promoters of private engineering colleges in Orissa. With the tussle going on between the newly formed Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) and Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) during admission time over seat quotas and fee fixation, students and their parents have become more cautious about admissions t his year.

As many as 2,600 seats in private engineering colleges are lying vacant as students who qualified in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) refused to take admission. While about 21,000 students were called for counselling, only 6,176 students turned up. Besides this, 1,500 students have taken admission under the management quota.

With the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) increasing 1,500 seats in engineering colleges this year, the number of seats in 37 engineering colleges in the state has gone up to 10,500.

The tussle between BUPT and OPECA started when the latter resolved to conduct separate entrance tests for admission into management seats. However, BPUT insisted that no merit list, except JEE, would be entertained for admission into the colleges.

This led to confusion and thus marred the admission prospects of these private engineering colleges. Moreover, the fee hike this year in private colleges has also made students rethink about taking admission. “The students are shying away from engineering courses because there are not enough job opportunities and the overall expenses have gone up” admits state industries minister, KV Singhdeo, who is also the chairman of the JEE Board.

He, however, said that seats lying vacant was not a new trend in the state. About 2,000 seats were vacant in engineering colleges last year.

This year, the worst hit are colleges imparting Master in Computer Application (MCA) courses. The uncertainty in information technology job market has reflected the mood in during the admission season. Only 650 of the 2,622 seats in the engineering and MCA colleges in the state were filled up this year.

Meanwhile, looking at the seat vacancy position, OPECA has urged the state government to allow it to admit students outside the JEE list.

The government and BPUT should relax the JEE guidelines to take more and more students in the professional courses, says OPECA president Kaminikanta Patnaik. “If the admission norms can be relaxed for MCA, why can’t the same be done for all other engineering subjects”, he adds.