Almost like a replay of last year, less than half of the seats in the engineering colleges have been filled up through the Odisha Joint Entrance Counselling (OJEE) this year.
The total number of seats in the engineering colleges in the State is 45,467, which has been increased from last year’s 42,000. This year, 28,885 candidates registered for the OJEE counselling for the engineering stream. Of this, only 19,647 have been allotted seats in the colleges. The total seats allotted in the engineering colleges also include the students from JEE Mains, which is around 2,500.
The eight government colleges of the State have had no difficulty in filling up their seats. This was the case despite the State Government enhancing the number of engineering seats by 700 this year, after a long time.
This year, the total number of engineering seats in the private engineering colleges was increased in the midst of counselling in a few of the engineering colleges.
The total number of seats in government engineering colleges now stands at 3,076 and in private engineering colleges at 42,391. Of the 12,000 seats reserved for lateral entry, only 6,347 were allotted seats.
The indiscriminate increase in the number of seats in the private colleges has put the State Government in a fix, as it has become increasingly difficult to monitor the quality of technical education being imparted in the private colleges.
The OJEE officials have persistently asked the students to exercise extra caution before taking admission into any engineering college. Senior Government officials have pointed out that the large number of vacant seats notwithstanding, some engineering colleges had even requested the introduction of lateral entry for second shifts.
The candidates who have been allotted their final choice in the provisional list will get three days (July 13-15), to withdraw their choice. The final list will be out on July 17.
The OJEE officials have asked the students not to report to their allotted colleges based on the provisional list as the final list might be modified based on how many candidates withdraw their final choice before July 15.