More than 15,000 engineering merit seats stand to get converted into NRI quota seats what with the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations being unable to fill all the merit seats in private self-financing engineering colleges.
Based on a representation given by the Kerala Self-Financing Engineering College Management Association, the R. Rajendra Babu Admission Supervisory Committee has issued an order permitting vacant seats to be brought under the NRI quota.
Mr. Babu told The Hindu that All India Council for Technical Education’s Approval Process Handbook-2017 explicitly states that any vacancies in the approved intake in colleges after the final round of allotment by the State government concerned may be filled with NRI quota/ Persons of Indian Origin/Overseas Citizen of India/ children of Indian workers in Gulf countries.
“The ASC has only implemented what was provided for by the AICTE. There are thousands of seats lying vacant,” Mr. Babu explained.
The final round of allotment to self-financing engineering colleges got over on July 25.
As per the seat-fee agreement arrived at between the government and the association, seats that cannot be filled by the CEE would lapse to become management quota seats. Once seats get converted into the NRI quota, even those who did not write the entrance examination can be admitted.
15,869 vacant seats
According to information made available by the CEE, 15,869 seats in private self-financing engineering colleges are vacant after the third round of allotment. While there are 2,800 vacancies in government-controlled self-financing colleges, there are 291 vacancies in government engineering colleges.
For the architecture programme, there are 108 vacancies in private self-financing colleges and three vacancies in government colleges.
For the pharmacy course, there are 520 vacancies in private self-financing colleges and 48 vacancies in government colleges, after the third round of allotment by the CEE.
