Only 4,500 apply for 23,000 seats in BTech

Deepkamal Kaur

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 17

There has been a significant drop in the number of applicants for BTech admissions to the four universities of the state going for counselling being organised by IK Gujral Punjab Technical University (IKG-PTU) this year.

Admission is being conducted for 66 colleges affiliated to the IKG-PTU, 41 of Maharaja Ranjit Singh State Technical University, Bathinda; College of Agricultural Engineering at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, and those of Punjabi University, Patiala.

Against a total of nearly 23,000 seats to be allotted via online counselling, only 4,500 applicants had applied, the result of seat allotment of which was declared last evening. This clearly indicates that the number of applicants was just 20 per cent of the total seats in the first round.

There has been a constant fall in admissions in BTech through counselling with a more alarming dip this year. While last year, there were over 8,500 applicants through online counselling, this time the number has come down just to half.

Lacunae in seat allotment

Staff of the IKG-PTU has been on strike since Friday last and the result of seat allotment was declared last evening three days behind schedule. But there are some lacunae in the process. Scores of candidates who had applied for the first round of counselling have said they had not been adjusted despite the payment of fee. Engineering aspirants from across the state have been making repeated rounds to get the fee that they paid online mapped through the IKG-PTU authorities, but to no avail. Such students, whose fee is not reflecting on the list of applicants with the National Informatics Centre, a Centre-run body providing software and technical support for online counselling, have been left fuming.

Sourav, an applicant, said he had paid the counselling fee of Rs 2,000 on July 14 of which he even had a receipt.

“My problem is that when I log in for new registration, it is showing an error. It says that your fee details are not available with us. Please check it from the account department. Owing to the strike, admission staff on the campus is not cooperating with the authorities in dealing with such matters,” he said.

Computer science engineering in demand

Authorities at most colleges and universities, including the Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, have said computer science engineering remains the top choice among students even this year because of a plethora of job options available thereafter. Electronics and communication engineering and mechanical engineering are the second and third streams that most students are opting for. Other professional courses, including bachelor of physiotherapy and bachelor of architecture are also reportedly getting a good response.

Pvt universities giving a tough fight

The mushrooming of private universities in the state is posing as a big challenge to even old established colleges and universities. With four private universities in the region - Lovely Professional University, DAV University, GNA University and Baba Bhag Singh University - students now have various options.

Lucrative offers

All colleges and universities have been providing lucrative scholarship waiver offers to students and even publicising the same through social networking sites and mobile applications and signage boards outside campuses. Guru Nanak Dev University College on Ladowali Road has a signage even giving the details of fee installments for various courses. The Apeejay College of Fine Arts has put up an electronic ticker with admission information running on it to attract passers-by during night hours.

Lovely Professional University, which hosted a state government event for honouring 304 international players with cash awards, yesterday announced 100 per cent waiver in admission fee and hostel fee to any of these players taking admission to the campus.

Virtual tour of campus

Marching ahead of other campuses technology-wise, Lovely Professional University has started a new portal ptuonline.net/admissionforms where the entire process of admission is done online. Assistant director, public relations at the LPU Aman Mittal said: “We have students coming to us from across the country and even abroad. They need not come here for taking admission. They can take a complete Google-aided virtual tour of the campus, appear for an online entrance examination after booking time according to their suitability, submit their documents and even pay fee online. Further, after getting admission, they will get a login ID and password through which they can even get their time table and other details.”

Mittal said the website and a toll free number given on the website was generating a lot of response.

He said: “We have a mobile application called LPUtouch. It can be downloaded on a mobile phone through Google play store. Students can even know their attendance through the application.”