Students Requires to Score 50% in Plus-II to Study Engineering, Pharmacy in Orissa

Bhubaneswar: Now, students must score at least 50 % marks in Class XII to be eligible to apply to any engineering or pharmacy college across the state of Orissa.

In addition, following the new guidelines issued by All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), the Orissa state government has increased the minimum eligibility to appear in OJEE from 45% in Class XII to 50% from the coming academic session. However, it is expected that this eligibility criterion might have a huge bearing on students pursuing science at the Class XII level in Orissa who were so far eligible for admission in engineering and pharmacy courses with a score of 45%, the minimum pass percentage.

Although, the Orissa state government argued that the shift would improve the quality of education, engineering colleges anticipated this would leave more seats vacant in technical institutes of the state. More than 17,000 seats remained vacant in 2010. Sitaram Mohapatra, OJEE Vice-Chairman, has said that they only followed the AICTE guidelines. He said that the quality of engineers coming out of colleges will improve following the 50% minimum qualification criteria. Besides, the Orissa government announced the OJEE-2011 schedules on Sunday.

Furthermore, the Secretary of Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) Binod Dash said that the new eligibility criteria would further increase the number of vacancies in technical institutes of the state. He said that they have urged the state government to intervene and reduce the eligibility percentage to 45 per cent in Plus-II or make it 50 per cent in Class X.

As per sources, the new eligibility criteria would also impact engineering and pharmacy colleges in the state considering that of the 40,000 existing engineering seats in 107 technical colleges, only 20,000 students will be eligible for the examination. The sources also added that about 20 engineering colleges had less than 20 students last year.

Dash has also pointed out that while the number of seats in engineering colleges has increased from 6,000 to 40,000 in the last decade, seats in Plus-II colleges have not increased by more than 500. So the mismatch is obvious. Also, according to Mohapatra, currently, a large number of engineering students are not able to clear examinations like GATE because average students are opting for engineering, It is a good move as it will lead to a higher standard of education in professional colleges.

However, in its attempt to attract more outside students to Orissa, the OJEE has decided to hold examinations at different centres across India. Besides, Mohapatra added that this year, they are holding examinations in cities like Ahmedabad, Surat, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and so on. The entrance test is scheduled to be held on May 1, 2011 for MCA, MBA, PGDM, PGCM, MPharm and May 5, 2011 for aspirants of BTech, BArch, MBBS, BDS, BPharm and lateral entry. According to official sources, the last date of filing online registration was March 15, official sources said.