Our CorrespondentLudhiana, July 7
Proliferation of colleges running postgraduate courses in management and computer applications in the state has resulted in a very awkward situation this year. While there are as many as 3,600 seats for MBA and MCA in colleges affiliated with Punjab Technical University, the number of students seeking admission is less than half.
There were 1,100 seats for MBA and 1,800 for MCA till last year but this year many more colleges imparting same courses have come up. The list includes four engineering colleges in Patiala, Amritsar, Dera Bassi and Nawanshahr, which have been granted permission to start MCA courses with the available infrastructure. With this the number of seats for MBA has gone up to 1,445 and for MCA to 2,155.
On the contrary, the number of candidates applying for these courses has come down this time. According to the figures available from the university, 1,675 candidates had appeared for the entrance test this time of which 1,633 students got passed. Last year 1,853 students had appeared for the test and 1,810 got passed.
While counselling for the reserved categories for the two courses began today at the DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jalandhar, that for the general category would start from July 10.
As many as eight of the total 24 colleges of MCA had not been able to fill even a single seat. Just two colleges — Punjab College of Technical Education, Baddowal, and College of Management and Technology, Mandi Gobindgarh, had been able to fill all their seats for MCA. Many colleges have even filled the seats directly.
Many colleges may face a grim situation as the system of paid seats has been abolished by the university from this session. Earlier, 50 per cent seats in each college were paid, forcing the students to shell out nearly double the amount of fee charged from the candidates in the open category. But now all students would pay an equal amount of Rs 22,500 as tuition fee per semester.
Mr S.K. Bhatia, Registrar of PTU, confirmed that the trend of taking direct admissions in colleges had become popular. He said last time 1,600 of the total 2,900 seats had been filled and the rest were filled directly by the colleges. He said even though no new college had been started this time the existing colleges with at least one technical course had been given permission to start courses. The number of seats allocated to different colleges has also been increased, he added.
