After a long time, degree colleges — both government and private — have witnessed huge response from students. Another striking feature is that the elected representatives have sent recommendation letters seeking admission for children of their kin.
Till the previous year, most of these colleges used to extend the last date for admission into various courses and conduct second and third phase of admissions to fill seats.
This year, however, the seats have been filled and there is no vacancy in any of the colleges.
Contrary to this scenario, a good number of engineering colleges are waiting for students and launching campaigns to attract them.
Restrictions imposed by the State government on the fee reimbursement scheme and improved employment opportunities for graduates of all disciplines seem to have resulted in a surge in admission into the degree courses.
“This year, the admissions are 150 per cent in our college. In addition to the regular seats, we have obtained approval for self-finance courses too, and today not a single seat is available in our college in any of the branches,” says C. Krishna, principal of Pithapuram Rajah Government Degree College.
Students who secured above 900 marks in the Intermediate course got admission into the BSc courses, while those who secured marks between 800 and 900 joined the commerce and arts courses.
“As a result of the increased number of applications from fresh pass-outs, we are unable to give admission to those who passed Intermediate in the supplementary examination this year. The competition is very tough and only the cream got the admission,” observes D. Ratnagiri Usha, Principal of Annavaram Satyavathi Devi Government Degree College for Women.
Interestingly, only 60 per cent of the seats have been filled in the first phase of counselling for the engineering courses.
Govt. move on fee a reason
“There is a drop in the competition for engineering seats in the first phase this year. For sure, changes in the fee reimbursement scheme have contributed to the plunge in the demand,” points out Ch. Saibabu, convener of the AP EAMCET-2016. The State government used to reimburse the entire fee of the engineering courses till last year. Now, it has put a cap on reimbursement, restricting it to Rs. 35,000 per student per annum. As per the revised fee structure in private engineering colleges, the annual fee is between Rs. 70,000 and Rs. 1.25 lakh.
“Not every student can afford the engineering fee now. Moreover, campus interviews are being conducted by corporate companies in degree colleges of late,” says Dr. Usha.
