Engg aspirants can’t pick 41 new courses, CEE told

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Technological University has instructed the state commissioner for entrance examinations to stop engineering aspirants from submitting options for as many as 41 courses for which the respective colleges have not received the university’s approval.
As is the practice in vogue among self-financing engineering colleges, 22 college managements had approached the high court against the varsity’s refusal to grant permission for new courses for which they had applied for. The high court had held that the university has no right to put new conditions for sanctioning new courses since the colleges were in receipt of the necessary approvals from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). But, the university approached the Supreme Court against the HC order and the latest instruction to CEE was based on a stay on HC order that SC has granted on October 13.
The university had earlier clarified that admission to a set of courses in certain colleges would be subject to the outcome of the court order. Time for candidates for submitting options online for second phase allotment of engineering seats had elapsed at 5pm on October 14 (Wednesday). With the SC stay order, admission to none of the seats and courses for which the colleges had obtained approval by bypassing the university would be possible.
The university in its petition before SC held that the high court order undermined the academic role and autonomy of the university, which is bound to ensure quality of education in engineering sector. AICTE has given sanction for new courses in several colleges with abysmally low pass percentage. The tendency, if goes unchecked, would further ruin quality in engineering studies and hence demand a serious intervention from the apex court, it said.
With the 41 courses secured by a total of 22 colleges are set to get cancelled, the number of engineering seats would be further down by 1680. The total number of engineering seats would be down by 3832, than last year.