Quarter lakh engineering seats vacant; Merit admission for qualified polytechnic candidates

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With more than a quarter lakh seats lying vacant, the government has given more relaxation in engineering admissions. Those who do not qualify the entrance are also allowed admission to the lateral entry seats which provide direct admission to the second year (third semester).

Admission to vacant seats after centralized allotment in Government, Aided, Government Controlled Self-Funding and Private Self-Funding Colleges is permitted on merit basis to polytechnic qualified candidates. With this, more than 20,000 seats which were vacant last year without children to study can be given admission to those from other states.

When this year's allotments are completed, about 40 percent of merit seats and 60 percent of self-help seats are vacant. In 40 colleges, 20 percent seats are occupied by students. There are colleges with less than 10 students. Even though the government has allowed admission of those who do not have the entrance qualification in the vacant seats, there is no result. Attempts to bring students from other states also failed. It is in this situation that the eligibility for lateral entry is waived.

In the past, B.Tech admissions were given to polytechnic diploma passers on the basis of academic merit, but now 'Let' qualification has been made mandatory. With this, self-supporting seats became vacant. The government accepted the recommendation made by the Director of Technical Education to admit polytechnic qualified candidates without entrance to the vacant seats after the centralized allotment to avoid the situation where colleges are locked without students to study.

3 seats are reserved for lateral entry in each batch. In a batch of 60 people, 3 more people can be taken. Lateral entry will also be given to the seats which were largely vacant last year. Qualified candidates with Diploma in Engineering, D.Voc and B.Sc degree with Mathematics as a subject for plus two will be directly admitted to the 2nd year of the 4-year engineering degree course.

The Supreme Court has extended the engineering admission till 30. Those who do not qualify for entry can join B.Tech and B.Tech (Lateral Entry) courses. 45 percent marks for Plaustu after studying Physics and Mathematics subjects.

"It is good that those who have obtained diploma from polytechnics can get engineering degree without entrance."

-Biju Ramesh

Assoc. President, Self-management

Empty seats in previous years

(Year, Seat, Admission, Vacancy, Percentage)

2022-23------45,073------30,012------15,061------33%

2021-22------44,946------26,777------18,169------59%

2020-21------45,197------27,757------17,440------61%

2019-20------47,268------26,622------20,646------56%

2018-19------50,051------24,836------25,215------49%

2017-18------55,310------27,282------28,028------49%