BHUABNESWAR: The State Government today decided to fix cut-off marks for admission into technical and professional institutions affiliated to the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) from 2011-12 academic session.
Till 2006, the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) carried cut-off mark and accordingly the merit list was prepared.
However, this is no more the practice since 2007 academic session after appointment of a retired High Court judge as the chairman of policy planning body (PPB) which also decides the fee structure for the technical and professional colleges.
As all the students who appear in JEE are given the opportunity for admission as per their rank, even students securing negative marks are getting into engineering streams. Such a practice should be stopped and a minimum benchmark should be fixed for production of quality technical manpower, the BPUT mandarins reportedly told a highlevel meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here.
Making a presentation on BPUT activities and its future plans to the Chief Minister, Vice-Chancellor Prof JK Satpathy reportedly said most of the states have set a minimum standard for admission into engineering streams. A minimum 45 per cent in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (PCM) is required in Karnataka for admission into engineering college while it is 50 per cent in Maharashtra, he added.
The Chief Minister directed BPUT to conduct academic audit of all its affiliated institutes every year to access the quality of education offered, standard of faculties and infrastructure facilities available to the students and take suitable action against deficient institutes.
While a majority of the engineering colleges is suffering from poor quality inputs, some of them are charging tuition fees beyond the amount fixed by the fee structure committee.
Industries Minister Raghunath Mohanty told the meeting that he had received complaints from students and their guardians about arbitrary fee structure and sub-standard education in some of the technical institutes. He suggested that the errant institutes should be de-recognised.
Expressing concern over the number of vacancies against the sanctioned intake of students in many technical institutes, the BPUT Vice-Chancellor apprehended that number of vacant seats is likely to increase this year. Over 8,000 seats fell vacant in 2009-10.