Nil admission in MCA at PTU

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 10

Blame it on the aftermath of mushrooming of private universities in the state offering technical courses or delay on the part of IK Gujral Punjab Technical University in conducting admission, not even a single seat in MCA in any of the 109 management colleges of the state has been filled even after the second round of online counselling that concluded at the university last week.

The admission to other courses too has been dismally low. There has been just one admission in M.Pharmacy via counselling for 33 colleges offering the course, 32 admissions in seven colleges of B.Architecture and 33 admissions in 109 colleges having as many as 120 seats each B.Pharmacy fairs better with a relatively more respectively figure of 140 seats. A total of 219 seats have been filled in M.Tech.

B.Tech, which is the most coveted course at undergraduate level and wherein nearly 24,000 seats had been offered through online counselling, has had nearly 7,000 applicants for both rounds. A total of 6,700 candidates had filled choices but only 2,400 students (10 per cent of seats offered) have paid the fee.

The number of applicants for B.Tech has come down to less than half in the past two years. For admissions for session 2013-14, there were 14,900 applicants of whom 4,700 had taken admission. Last year, the number had come down to 10,400, of whom 3,300 had taken admission. The figures reflect a constant fall in number of applicants and total admissions, thereafter.

Mushrooming of varsities

After the recent grant of status of university by the state cabinet for RIMT Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab now has 23 universities, including 10 private universities, nine state universities, one Central and three deemed universities. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned that there were as many as 1.04 lakh engineering seats in a small state like Punjab, during his speech at Gaya yesterday.

Dean’s take

Dean Academics IKG-PTU Dr Buta Singh, said, “The online admission tally has come down owing to an increasing trend of availing integrated courses, lateral entry schemes and most students preferring to take direct admission in colleges”.

A table of courses and admissions done:

Course

Admissions

MCA

0 (Zero)

M.Pharmacy

1

B.Arch

32

MBA

33

M.Tech

219

B.Pharmacy

140

B.Tech

2,400

Falling in number of students registered and admitted in B.Tech for three years:

Year

No. of students registered

Students who filled choices

Students who took admission

2013-14

14,900

14,300

4,700

2014-15

10,400

10,000

3,300

2015-16

7000

6700

2,400