(Original photo credit: Superwebdeveloper)
Students in Maharashtra who were eagerly waiting for their B-school classes to kickstart, finally got to pack their laptops and don their formal shirts – school started today, Mon August 8. The students have gone through two rounds of the central allotment process (CAP) conducted by the Directorate of Technical Education, Maharashtra. This year 39,187 students had applied to the 31,603 seats that were available initially. After the first round, 19,294 seats were allocated, out of which only 8,098 students reported to respective colleges. Sadly, after the end of two rounds, more than 15,000 seats are still vacant and up for grabs in the third round that starts on August 10. A total of four rounds will complete the process of allocating seats but officials say that the number of remaining applicants is more than enough to fill the seats.
In the second round (which ended on August 6), out of the remaining 25,000 odd seats, 10, 997 have been allocated. But by August 5, only 3,500 of the student have reported to the colleges. Sydenham Institute of Managment Studies and Research has about 10 seats filled up in the process of CAP round two. So out of the 20 seats vacant after the first round, 10 remain to be filled in the following third round, by which time the officials are sure that the batch will be complete. But is the institute afraid that the best crop of students might not come their way? “The quality of students is similar irrespective of the rounds, since there is a very small margin of difference between the cut-offs,” said Farooque Peerzada, research assistant at Sydenham.
Tomorrow, August 9, DTE will display the vacancy available for CAP round III. August 10-12 will see the third round and on 17th, the results of that will be put up. Students will have to report to colleges by 20th. If vacancy remains from that, they will be published on 22 August. After that there will be a counselling round at PUMBA (Department of Management Sciences at Pune University). The available seats will be shown to students who are called. Based on their demand, DTE will allocate seats between 24-26 of August. Those candidates who are allotted seats will seek admission in the individual colleges from 25-30 of August. The final cut-off date for admission is 5th of September, so the colleges can complete their admission procedure by that date. DTE says that they can confirm the final list of vacant seats only on the evening of 5th Sept.
Of course, as classes started on Monday, August 8, many colleges outside Mumbai and Pune may have had to begin with empty classrooms. According to an official in DTE, the reason is that these two cities provide the most career opportunities for the students. In Mumbai and Pune, students come here because they find good placement opportunities. Those who are looking for a better career do the MMS/MBA courses. Most companies come for the placements only in these two cities, said the DTE official.
Last year, there were about 6,000 seats that were not finally filled. This in spite of the fact that the higher and technical education minister, Rajesh Tope, had made an unprecedented announcement that students, who have not appeared for CET, but have a graduate degree, can apply to the colleges individually. This year of course, the AICTE sent a guideline preventing any college from accepting students without the requisite CET scores. But this year the colleges under the Consortium for Management Education (COME) have also had a poor show at student intake. DTE, which sets the guideline for COME, has an indifferent approach to the COME colleges. The DTE official told PaGaLGuY that they conduct their own exams and we dont monitor that, but only give guidelines for it.”