Private engineering colleges seek admission on Plus-II marks
BHUBANESWAR: Struggling with huge vacancy of seats for years, private engineering colleges in Odisha have urged the State government to allow enrollment of students in BTech 1st year on the basis of minimum Plus II marks required for admission instead of Special OJEE, after completion of counselling process under JEE (main).
They said since the AICTE has allowed the State government to decide the mode of selection of students for engineering seats after two rounds of JEE (main) counselling, the Odisha government should consider their plea.
Odisha Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) secretary Binod Dash said the proposed move will help a number of students failing to secure rank in JEE (main) or Special OJEE, due to various reasons, to fulfil their dream of pursuing engineering.
Besides, it will also help the colleges to bring down the vacancies in BTech seats by another 20-30 per cent. After enrolling students into BTech course through JEE (main) rank in two rounds of counselling, the Odisha Joint Engineering Entrance (OJEE) Committee conducts special OJEE to fill the remaining vacant seats.
Later, it hand overs the vacant seats to the colleges for admission at their level as per the ranks secured by the students in these entrance exams. Dash, however, said the mechanism hardly helps in filling up the vacancies as most JEE main and special OJEE rank holders don’t turn up leaving around 50 per cent (over 15,000 seats) in private engineering colleges vacant every year.
“In this context we have urged the Skill Development and Technical Education department to allow us to enroll students on the basis of the minimum qualification mark (45 pc in Plus II science), after two rounds of JEE (main) counselling is over,” he said. Dash said the same provision has already been made for enrollment of students in diploma courses.