Students can’t block engg seats any more

Students can’t block engg seats any more

Counselling Rounds May Be Capped At Three

Somdatta.Basu@timesgroup.com

Kolkata:23.07.2020

The counselling for the engineering seats across all tech colleges and universities in Bengal this session is likely to undergo a major change. Apart from the higher education department’s proposal to cap the number of counselling rounds at three, the candidates will not be able to hold on to their spots after each round.

If they do not accept the seats offered based on their ranks, then they will have to exit the round and re-enter the next cycle of counselling. This has been done to ensure there is a lower number of vacancies.

The state also wants to put an end to blocking of seats up to the decentralized counselling round, which allows private colleges to take in students for a higher fee. The higher education department has proposed to introduce the changes from the 2020 WBJEE counselling.

A senior JU engineering faculty member said, “Many candidates who may have remained in Bengal move out after the first few rounds when they find their preferred choices at their desired institutes are blocked. Later, when the candidate who had held on to the seat eventually releases it, an interested student may have already left the state.”

“There will be less migration in the 2020-2021 academic year considering the prevailing pandemic situation in the country. Thus, interested candidates with high ranks on the merit list are likely to stay back in the state. If the counselling policy is changed, more seats will be filled up,” said a WBJEEB official.

Officials in Bikash Bhavan who are drafting the policy hope that by the time decentralized counselling starts, a good number of seats will be taken up by meritorious students. “There will be further transparency in the counselling system,” a source said.

Pradip Chopra, iLead chairman, said when the engineering counselling was introduced, there were more candidates than seats. “Now the situation has changed. The IT boom has faded. Interest among the candidates has diminished for engineering while the seats have increased manifold. The engineering colleges are closing down. Thus, a candidate will find a seat eventually,” he added.

“Every year, WBJEE counselling stretches over four rounds, often leading to seats staying vacant. The government has initiated the changes to lessen the problem of empty seats and expects more candidates to remain in Bengal.A final decision may be taken in the next few weeks as the WBJEE (engineering) results are likely to be published in August,” said an official.

MAKAUT final-yr results out

All colleges and professional institutes affiliated to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology has published the results of final-year students of UG and PG courses of even semester evaluation for the 2019-2020 academic session. The results are available on www.makautexam.net. In case of any discrepancy, students can contact their colleges, who will inform the office of the Controller of Examinations within seven days of publication of the results. TNN