OPECA moves High Court over AICTE cut-off mark

OPECA moves High Court over AICTE cut-off mark

After rejection of its plea to set aside the cut-off mark in engineering admission by a single judge Bench of the High Court earlier this month, the Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) has again approached the High Court through a writ appeal seeking to ignore the cut-off mark at least for the ongoing academic session.

“We have filed the writ appeal urging the High Court to set aside the cut-off mark fixed by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) for the current year as a large number of engineering aspirants would be deprived of studies and many seats in the private engineering colleges of the State would fall vacant”, said the OPECA chairman Binod Dash.

The single judge Bench of Justice S.C. Parija on August 19 had rejected the OPECA plea and had directed that admissions for MBA, MCA and engineering courses in colleges of the State for the ongoing academic session shall be made strictly as per the guidelines set by the AICTE, New Delhi.

The AICTE in January this year had come out with a guidelines asking all its affiliated institutions to ensure that general students having less than 50 per cent marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics at Plus II level are not allowed to pursue engineering courses. For reserved category students, the eligibility criteria were 45 per cent. Later however, in June this year the AICTE scaled down the cut-off mark to 45 per cent for general students and fixed 40 per cent for reserved category students.

But by the time the AICTE came out with amended guidelines, the entrance examinations for engineering admissions were over in May, Dash contested saying the cut-off mark criteria introduced for the first time this year came in the middle of the session as a result, the students wishing to study engineering were deprived of higher studies and were going to lose one vital year for no fault of theirs.

The writ appeal however, has not been take cognizance yet by the High Court, sources said.



OPECA to challenge high court verdict


BHUBANESWAR: Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) has decided to file a writ petition in the Orissa High Court, following the court's decision to go by AICTE guideline of minimum eligibility of 45% marks in Plus II or equivalent exam for admission in an engineering course.

OPECA apprehended that the AICTE guideline will deprive at least 1,500 students, who have already locked up their choice of colleges for admission in engineering courses.

Secretary of OPECA, Binod Dash said, "We are not opposed to having minimum eligibility criteria for admission, be it 50% or 45%. Our concern is the students must be aware of it before they appear in the exam. By the time AICTE issued its guideline Plus II exam has already started. We are planning to collect affidavits from affected students."

OPECA further cited that in Orissa number of students securing 45% marks in physics and chemistry in combination with mathematics in Plus II science exam is very less in comparison to the number of seats available in private engineering colleges of the state. Besides, for Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste students, the minimum eligibility percentage will be 40% according to the HC ruling, and a large number of seats would remain vacant due to implementation of the norm, OPECA said.

There are a total of 38, 000 engineering seats in the state, for which about 57,000 students had appeared in the joint entrance exam and 29,000 students have registered online. However, only 20,500 candidates have filled up the choice-locking forms, of whom 19,000 students were allotted seats in different colleges on Saturday. About 2,000 students were eliminated due to the new eligibility criteria.

Vice chairman of OJEE, Sitaram Mohapatra said, "From August 20 to 25, candidates should be asked to report to nodal centres, while final allotment of seats will be announced on September 2. Candidates of SC and ST category will be given a second chance to fill up their choice forms between August 20 to 23 and new candidates of this category can report on August 24 and 25." The OJEE authorities said classes of academic session of 2011-12 were likely to commence immediately during the first week of September, he added.

"With Plus II pass as the eligibility criteria, there were 18,000 seats vacant last year. With the new rule, the number of vacancies would increase further this year. Besides, there is a dual policy of the state government to follow the AICTE guidelines and the Orissa Professional Education Act 2007 rules as per their wish," Dash added. "If the High Court will not listen to our plea then we will appeal in the Supreme Court," he added.






AICTE restores cut-off for engineering courses
Bangalore, Jun 30, (DHNS) :

In a move that could bring relief to 12,000 engineering seat aspirants, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has restored 45 per cent cut-off marks in the II PU for seeking admission to BTech courses. The criterion was revised to 50 per cent marks earlier this year.

The regulator had ruled that candidates should secure at least 50 per cent marks in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics to be eligible for admission to engineering courses. The move came in for criticism particularly in the context of engineering seats lying vacant across the country. Around 8,000 seats were unfilled in Karnataka last year while it was 22,000 seats in Maharashtra.

Following the new directive, the number of eligible students in the State had gone down to 60,543 against 71,639 last year. The restoration of the earlier norm would benefit 12,000 students, according to officials from the Karnataka Examination Authority. The increase in eligibility criterion for the SC/ST students from 40 pc to 45 pc is also expected to be reversed.

The AICTE resorted to upward revision following complaints over the poor quality of students emerging from engineering colleges. Several studies by industry bodies such as NASSCOM had raised doubts on the employability of fresh graduates. AICTE Chairman S S Manthan said the cut-off marks was restored following representation from all the states.

Part-time courses

The AICTE has also released new regulations for part-time courses in management and engineering for working professionals. Colleges which offer both part-time and full time courses cannot conduct evening classes for students enrolled for full time courses. Intake to a part time course cannot exceed half the intake to a full time course.

Rs 2.5 lakh ceiling for poor quota

The Karnataka Examination Authority has released guidelines for the supernumerary quota for engineering seats mandated by the All India Council for Technical Education.

Under the guidelines, all candidates whose parental annual income is less than Rs 2.5 lakh will be eligible for supernumerary seats. The number of seats in the supernumerary quota will be five per cent of the sanctioned intake to each course in all engineering courses.

The selected candidates will be exempted from paying tuition fee for all the semesters of the entire course. They will have to pay only the university registration fee and other charges.

The SC and ST candidates need not pay the university registration fee. For availing of seats under the quota, candidates will have to produce income certificate from the tahsildar at the time of seat selection.

These seats will be made available in the order of merit. The unfilled seats under the quota, if any, will not be reverted to private colleges. For more details visit http://kea.kar.nic.in



AICTE decision: students with 45% in PCM can apply for Engineering
Nagpur, Jul 5 (PTI)

Engineering colleges in Maharashtra, which were finding it extremely difficult to get candidates for degree courses, have some reason to cheer now.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), an an advisory body in all matters relating to technical education, has relaxed the basic eligibility criteria for admissions to the first year engineering course.

The criterion has been brought down to 45 per cent (40 per cent for reserved category) aggregate in physics, chemistry and mathematics (PCM) group in standard XII exam, from 50 per cent in force till last year.

This follows the apex engineering body’s decision to lower the bar for polytechnic admissions to 35 per cent from 50 per cent in standard X exam from any board.

"The AICTE had taken this decision a couple of days back. But it’s yet to reach us formally," sources close to the Director of Technical Education (Mumbai), Subhash Mahajan said.

The official added that DTE will make changes only after getting official communication in this regard.

Highly placed sources said that the last date of submission of forms is also likely to be extended, if the new criterion is implemented.

They pointed out that AICTE was forced to lower the bar as demand for engineers was globally high, but the field evoked a poor response from candidates. Not only were high fees a factor, but many students were also not able to fulfil even the basic criteria of getting 50 per cent in PCM group in class XII exams.

Over 1.14 lakh engineering seats are up for grabs in 309 colleges across Maharashtra currently. However, the number of applications was around 90,000 till last Wednesday, which raised fears of many seats remaining vacant across the state.

Last year, over 22,000 remained vacant and many new colleges were forced to close some branches, including that of Information Technology, which was once a popular choice of students.

Over 2.54 lakh applicants had appeared for the engineering entrance exam, for which, minimum eligibility is just one mark out of 200. However, many of them were not able to fulfil the basic criteria of scoring 150/300 marks in PCM group in HSC.

With AICTE lowering the bar, any candidate scoring 135/300 marks would become eligible for admissions to BE first year.