KOCHI: Students will soon be able to apply for courses in various colleges in the state through a single application, said KT Jaleel, Minister for Higher Education, on Friday. He was speaking at a function after the stone-laying ceremony for the new building for the economics department at Maharaja’s College. The building will also house the new BA Honours courses.“The aim is to establish a single window system for admissions to all the universities in the state,” he said.
“The government has initiated steps to attract more students to government colleges by improving the infrastructural facilities in the institutions. From the next academic year the number of seats in the government colleges will be increased. More new courses need to be started in government colleges,” said the minister.
He assured that the basic infrastructure of the institutions will be improved in order to attract more and more students from the northern states and also outside the country. The aim of the government is to attract at least 100 international students to gain admissions at the various institutions. “The campaign will be started from the next academic year. It will highlight how the campuses in Kerala don’t differentiate students based on their caste, creed or religion,” he said.
He revealed that of the 50,000 seats available in the engineering colleges in the state, nearly 50 percent are remaining vacant. “Only half of the applicants are writing the engineering entrance examination. The system of selecting students through entrance examination started when there were only 12 colleges. In the case of polytechnic colleges and other institutions of higher education, the admissions are done based on the marks obtained in the qualifying examinations. So the time has come to rethink on the system of entrance examinations,” he said.
“The general education scenario has seen a lot of revolutionary changes. So it is time to strengthen and equip government colleges. Institutions from Kerala have not found a place in the NAAC and NIRF lists. This is deplorable,” he said.