Nearly 4.50 lakh students passed the Intermediate public examinations of March 2011 belonging to different streams like MPC, BiPC, MEC, CEC, HEC etc, but the bulk of them are from MPC and BiPC streams. To pursue further studies in the most coveted professional courses, Engineering & Medicine, they have to appear for many entrance examinations, including EAMCET. Admission into professional courses like Engineering, Medicine, Dental Pharmacy, Agriculture, Veterinary, Horticulture etc. are offered in different types of institutions like Universities, IITs, NITs Deemed Universities Autonomous colleges, Private self-financing Affiliated colleges is really puzzling to many students and parents. The students of BiPC stream naturally aspire to join Medicine. Bachelor of Medical Science is available in Allopathy, Homeopathy, Ayurveda, Unani, Natural cure and Yogic sciences. These students can get admission into Bachelor course in Dental surgery and Pharmacy. The rankers of this stream are also eligible to get admission to Bachelor courses in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Horticulture, Agriculture Management etc. The prioritisation of these courses and institutions is not that difficult as the number of those colleges is less and the last track record of these institution and Alumni will give an insight to these students as to make correct choice of the stream etc. suitable to there rank and profile.
The engineering stream with nearly 49 branches is offered in 25 university colleges and 706 private engineering colleges in our state and colleges in other states. Many Deemed universities in Andhra Pradesh and outside are also offering engineering branches on their campuses and their off-campus centers located in different cities and towns on the basis of their own entrance tests. Some engineering programmes offered in few colleges are accredited by NBA and many engineering programmes offered in large number of engineering colleges are without any accreditation.The Intermediate passed students aspiring to study professional courses especially engineering are confronted and perplexed with the following problems:
The nature and the number of entrance tests they have to attempt.
Is it good to attempt too many entrance tests?
Subtle focus differences of these tests.
How to choose correct branch matching students mental profile.
Search for a good college/ Institution with objective parameters
Choosing an accredited or nonaccredited branch.
Opting for Convener quota/Management quota.
Distinction between Local and Non-Local category seats.
Fee implications of A & B- Category seats, Deemed Universities, All India Institutes and Universities.
Focusing on All India Institutions or Institutions within the state.
Preferring Deemed Universities with higher tuition fee.
Complexity of web counselling.
Seats reservation to different social categories and other sections.
Distinction between circuit and noncircuit branches.
Requirements of branch specific student aptitude.
Awareness of the branch specific core competencies and skill sets.
Different road maps to different branch students.
Last cut off ranks in different institutions for different branches.
Job package variation for different branch students.
Awareness of ambience of work places of professional engineers.
Awareness of branches having chances of further study and jobs abroad.
Awareness of the branches to which majority CEOs and MDs of companies belong.
Preference to be given for city based colleges or district/rural colleges With regard to engineering, there is plethora of entrance examinations a student has to appear and get good rank to seek admission into these professional courses. A large number of students appear for EAMCET for admission into the colleges located in Andhra Pradesh. For IIT admission, they have to write Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE).
For admission into NITs, a candidate has to write AIEEE. Each Deemed University has its own entrance test for admission into their professional courses. For example, Vellore Institute of Technology (Deemed University) the entrance test is called VITEEE. For admission into SRM Deemed University the entrance test is called SRMEEE. For five-year integrated courses offered by different universities, they conduct separate entrance tests Thus students are subjected to the agony of appearing for many entrance tests.
The focus and format of each test is different in its approach and questioning. Many times thorough preparation of EAMCET will serve no purpose for JEE of IIT. JEE insists upon questioning on practical situations involving a concept or theory. The very questioning varies a lot in these examinations demanding different competencies and aptitude. As the craze for IIT admissions is increasing year after year, the corporate junior colleges are using every conceivable marketing technique to enroll thousands of students for their IIT coaching campuses without verifying the mental frame and aptitude levels of the students to match with the requirement of IIT JEE. This is resulting in total frustration among lakhs of students as the preparation for IIT JEE is of little use to crack EAMCET. Answering EAMCET questions demands only memory and by hearting.Questions with multiple answers don’t require analytical and critical skills.The parents in their over enthusiasm to see their children have quality education in institutions of high repute are also not giving any importance to this and encouraging their children to write as many number of entrance examinations as possible.
There are students who attempt 10+ tests. Ultimately all this is resulting in not getting a good rank in any of these tests. They will be compelled to join management quota (B-Category) seats in Private Engineering Colleges, Minority institutions or Deemed Universities by paying lakhs of rupees towards tuition fee/capitation fee etc. This can be avoided by appropriate mapping of mental abilities of students much earlier and decide whether his/her mental profile matches the requirements of JEE, AIEEE, EAMCET etc. Mere marks obtained in Class X or Intermediate based on memory power of the students brain during the examinations is not indicative of the aptitude which involves observation, reasoning, analysis, critical, creative and out of box thinking faculties of the human brain. Lakhs of students appearing for IIT JEE for a few thousands seats available in IITs is definitely a national waste of resources which can be avoided by proper counselling by experienced educational counsellors. Then a student can focus on one or two entrance tests with a chance to get good rank and obtain a seat in his/her coveted branch and college.
The next issue that puzzles many a student is to know which engineering branch is good in terms of better career prospectus. This requires a deep contemplation. All branches are having good employment opportunity whether they are core or non-core and circuit or non-circuit. The services of engineers are required not only in India but also abroad. In fact, we are exporting technically trained manpower to both developed and developing countries of the world. The purpose of such large number of engineering students being trained in India is to serve not only the needs of India alone but to cater to the global needs also. Each branch provides a particular set of branch specific core competencies and skill sets to that branch students and demands certain abilities from the student to pursue that branch. The prospective student must be aware of those abilities required to study that branch and also the competencies and skills the branch provides to him/her.
In the very beginning, they should be aware of their place of work after four years of study. They should know the names of the organizations, companies, industries in India or abroad that require his/her chosen branch core competencies/skills. If this is done most of the confusion that is there can be avoided and the road map of each student will be very clear. Choosing a branch due to eer/parental pressure should be avoided. The student must have genuine interest to study that branch. This can be decided by the students when they are aware of the curriculum and competencies of that branch. Some branch graduates like CSE, IT with their software jobs, if selected in on-campus placements will get good package of Rs. 3+ lakh per annum. Whereas the student of core branches like Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, though have chances of immediate employment, the package offered initially to them is Rs.2+ lakh per annum. With one or two years of experience they will occupy a very good position with higher package in the hierarchy of any industry. All students of all branches have chances of employability but they differ in their work place ambience, hours of work, security of job, chances of going abroad, leave, promotional avenues, job satisfaction, team building, mother tongue communication, English communication skills etc. Hence, the parents and students shall be aware of all these before they choose a particular branch. Lack of this awareness is resulting into more admission into circuit branches, ECE, CSE, IT in large number resulting in unemployment and competition.
The core branches like Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical are evergreen always having employment potentiality irrespective of software boom or doom. Further, branches like Metallurgy, Automobile, Aeronautics, Marine, Mining, Leather Technology etc offer immediate and excellent employability.It is interesting to note that most of the CEOs and M.Ds of big Organizations/Industries in both government and Private sectors are from core branches. In these branches, the number of seats is less and almost all students will get on-campus placement in their core area. Without being swayed away towards software job, for which all branch students are eligible if one wants to stick on to the core area specialization, the better choice will be these minor branches with greater chances of employment, Higher Education and research. Viewing from the total number of EAMCET candidates, it can be stated that every qualifying ranker will get a seat in engineering as the number of seats available are more than the rankers. The most vexed problem confronting the rankers of engineering is the selection of the college/institution.
The top rankers of EAMCET are opting for university engineering colleges as they have all the facilities. The order of preference, as on today, is IITs, NITs, University Colleges, Best private engineering colleges. The affordable are giving preference to Deemed Universities because of their academic performance and placement record. The difficulty comes in the case of private engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh as there is no grading, rating or grouping of colleges done by any Government/Regulatory agency on scientific and objective parameters.
Many colleges suffer from physical and intellectual infrastructure deficiencies. A product from such colleges will not be accepted by any Employer. Despite resorting to many questionable practices the pass percentage in these colleges is very poor. They give very big and attractive advertisements misguiding the students and parents. It is here the parents/ students must be very cautious and shall make inquiry of academic and placement profile of those 5 or 6 probable colleges where they are likely to get admission based on their rank. They should physically go to those 5 short listed colleges, verify their physical infrastructure like the year of establishment, classrooms, labs, workshops, equipment, library, canteen, hostels, transport etc, talk to the students studying there, meet the branch faculty, inquire their credentials like their qualifications, experience, research done, paper publications, obtain the track record of previous years placements, names and levels of companies that visited the college, value addition courses being conducted on the campus, co-curricular events, like seminars and tech fests being organized, university ranks obtained, guest lectures organized, parents liaison mechanism, specialefforts by the management to enhance soft/ life skills of the students especially student communication skills, annual magazine published by the college, their alumni details, the forums available to blossom, the creative and original talents of students etc. The information on all these aspects will give correct insight to the parents/students to make impartial evaluation as to the good and bad of those colleges. Don’t be guided by their brochures, websites as they are mostly manipulated.It is better to choose an accredited programme than a non-accredited, as the accreditation to any programme is being accorded by NBA expert team after thorough verification and scrutiny of all aspects.
But the students have to pay Rs 3000 extra tuition fee per annum for such accredited programmes. Some colleges have manipulated this accreditation also by pulling the strings. AICTE and affiliating universities are complete failure in maintaining the quality and standard of engineering education despite their periodical/surprise inspections. Yet there are very good colleges with all the required facilities thanks to zest and zeal of those managements. The distinction of convener quota, management quota, or A-category or B category seats, local and non-local quota and minority and majority college seats must be known to the students and parents as there is variation of fee and admission process in respect of those seats. Fifteen percent of the seats are allotted to nonlocal candidates and remaining 85 percent are called local. For this the geographical area of Andhra Pradesh is divided into three university areas viz namely Andhra university area, (Srikakulam, Viziayanagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Ongole districts), Sri Venakateswara University area, (Nellore, Chittor, Anantapur, Kurnool and Cuddapa districts) and Osmania University area covering all 10 districts of Telangana.The knowledge of A and B category seats is a must 30 percent of seats are called B- category/ NRI quota. The remaining 70 percent of seats in a college are called convener quota. A student who got seat under convener quota has to pay nearly Rs.32, 000 as tuition fee per annum. Fifteen percent of management quota is given to NRI or NRI sponsored based on IPE marks, by
the college management and annual fee payable is Rs. 2.25 lakh.
The remaining 15 percent seats quota are given to students who responded to college notification on the basis of merit i.e rank obtained in EAMCET for the residents of A.P, for other state residents on the basis of AIEEE rank. The annual fee prescribed is Rs. 95,000. Very few college managements have transparency in admissions by following all prescribed guidelines. Some private engineering colleges, who have brand value, resort to some unjust practices to give admission to students of their choice and collect a few lakhs of rupees as donation/ development fee /capitation fee. Despite many GOs and Act in this regard some college managements are still collecting huge sums besides fee prescribed. There is no problem at all to get B category seats in many engineering colleges as those seats are not being fully filled up. Some colleges surrender B category seats to the convener of EAMCET and some offer these seats even for Convener quota Tuition fee or even less. There are advertisements like “pay for on e year and study for 4 years”. It is appropriate for the parents and students to have some awareness of government financial support schemes like Fee Reimbursement,Scholarships and the criteria for awarding them which helps in the final decision making. A bit of understanding of reservation of seats given to different social categories, girls, disabled, defence personnel etc will help students and parents to identify their probable college/branch. The details of college-wise, branch-wise, category-wise cut off rank of last year admissions are available in the Convener website and separate booklets published by different agencies. The parents/students are advised to go through them to know much early the names of the probable colleges/branches. Thorough understanding of web counselling process and procedure is a must to all prospective stu ents. A small mistake in entering an alphabet of the college code during web counselling will land him/her not in the college chosen but in some other college. Lot of time is given to revise their branch/college options. Hence, there is no tension on this count. As the present generation of students is computer friendly, they will do well in web counselling. These professional students go for highereducation or employment. They should be exposed to tests like CAT, GMAT, GATE, GRE,TOFEL, ILTES etc. Soft skills and Life skills training programs for more employability, and awareness of various competitive examinations like Civil Group - I, Technical entry into Defense, Scientist jobs in R&D etc. Cities and big towns have more and expert agencies to sensitize and ignite the student mind in that direction and an atmosphere to inculcate cosmopolitan outlook, interactions to broaden the mental horizon of the students.
(The author is Dean at SLC’s Institute of Engg & Technology)