The University of Kerala has proposed equating the Plus Two marks of candidates from boards across the country to the marks of the Kerala higher secondary examinations for the online allotment to degree courses it plans to implement from the coming academic year.
This proposal was mooted at a meeting of chairmen of various pass boards of study chaired by Pro-Vice Chancellor J. Prabhash here on Monday.
A draft proposal for implementing the online application and allotment system was circulated at the meeting. According to the varsity's proposal, the marks of candidates from, say, the CBSE or the ICSE streams, would first be equated to a total of 1200. Then the marks for the individual subjects would be considered.
ADVERTISEMENT
If, for instance, a candidate submits application for the BA English course, the marks of that candidate would be converted and equated to a total of 200 which is the total for the English papers in the Kerala higher secondary.
Likely hitch
However, the university is yet to finalise how to handle the application of a candidate who has studied the science stream for Plus Two and wishes to apply for economics or commerce for the degree programme. A common practice now is for such students to be admitted via the management quota wherever applicable. This is because such a candidate almost never finds a place on the merit list because they cannot be given index marks for the subject concerned. But with the university planning to handle all allotments online, the admission of such candidates may be problematic.
ADVERTISEMENT
In fact the varsity's proposal to handle all allotments on its own has raised questions about admissions made under the community quota in various colleges. “Though the draft proposal did not contain any clues on this issue, it was clear from what the PVC said that the varsity plans to do all the allotments by itself. This may generate disquiet in minority institutions,” one pass board chairman who was present at the meeting told The Hindu .
Dr. Prabhash told The Hindu that Monday's discussion was a preliminary meeting and that all chairmen had been asked to prepare, by February 10, a proposal detailing how admissions can be done for their course. Each chairman has also been asked to provide a “working example” of how a candidate with a particular level of marks can be factored into a rank list.
Dr. Prabhash also reportedly informed the meeting that the varsity would require two to three months for preparing the software to be used for accepting online applications and the subsequent allotments.