The long wait and the ordeal

Updated on: Monday, June 21, 2010

On Wednesday evening, thousands of engineering aspirants who were gearing up to attend the admission process for engineering colleges across Karnataka (that was to begin on Friday, June 18) received an SMS stating that Round One had been “indefinitely postponed.”

Varying reports, some stating that all colleges had been ‘derecognised' and others quoting delay on the part of the accreditation body AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), did the rounds. Students, and their parents, are understandably worried. What does this delay imply? Does it mean that the number of seats on offer will come down? Does it reflect on the quality of colleges?

When the rounds begin will those colleges that are mentioned in the brochure be taking in a lesser number of students? Does a more stringent AICTE regime mean that many colleges may even later be derecognised?

These are some of the questions being asked by engineering seat aspirants, who are an understandably worried lot today.

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It is necessary to understand that none of the colleges have been derecognised. In fact, the recognition process, which colleges have to go through to run their courses, is still in progress. It would be worthwhile to ask why the State Government announced admission rounds before the AICTE approvals were given.

It must be noted that Karnataka is the only State to face this problem so far because it is the first to conduct its admission rounds. While neighbouring States conduct admissions in mid-July and even August, Karnataka prides itself on being an early bird. However, every year, issues such as this surface, albeit on a smaller scale. It is worth recalling that medical admissions too were no smooth process this year. While admissions to medical colleges began on June 9, the MCI has still not granted recognition to five colleges in the State. This means that several students who opted for seats in Round One have to return for Round Two (called the casual vacancy round). Admission rounds for AYUSH (Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy) did not take place either as these seats were not approved.

AICTE role

For engineering colleges, AICTE approval is mandatory. While previously the State Government was able to hurry up the inspection process, this year a “far more transparent and uncircumventable process” has replaced the inspection-based method. As the principal of a leading engineering college, who spoke on condition of anonymity, puts it, the new process puts an end to the “briefcase culture” that has prevailed in the AICTE. He refers to rampant corruption in approval to start and run colleges in the State. Today, there are no fewer than 178 engineering colleges, offering 79,828 seats, functioning in Karnataka. “While students are angry about the delay, I think it is for the good. Things have been uncontrolled for too long. If the AICTE is trying to bring a new regime of accountability, then it is a good thing. College managements are trying to blame the AICTE as they feel pressured. While the good colleges will emerge unscathed, those who have been short-changing students all this while will now have to be accountable,” the principal said.

The AICTE will come out with its first list of approved colleges by June 26, when its Executive Council meets. This week, 15 new committees, each comprising two academics and an architect, were constituted to scrutinise applications from the Kerala-Karnataka region. This means that the engineering seat aspirants in the State will have to wait at least till the end of the month for admissions to begin.

While college managements agree that the academic calendar will not be deeply impacted by this, it will create a lot of confusion. The private college admission process, conducted by the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K) has been postponed from July 2 to July 20, following these developments.

As of now, students have no option but to wait and watch what the final approved list will look like. Given that there were 11,000 vacant seats in engineering colleges last year, if the new colleges do not make it to the list, students will not be affected.

However, it is the tier-II colleges that constitute a large portion of the pie, and whether they will make the cut or not this year will make a difference.

The long wait and the ordeal

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