Using IT tools for quickness, efficiency,exactness, uniformity, storage, periodical updating, retrieval etc. is always welcome in all areas of human activity especially in the spheres where there is scope for influencing the concerned by fair or foul means. The introduction of web counselling in the arena of admissions specifically into most sought after professional courses, replacing the previous system of personal counselling is wrought with many advantages and practical problems. It can be understood that any change will be resisted initially, but later accepted and imbibed if it is worthy and beneficial to the clientele.
Nowadays, admissions into courses like B.Tech,MBA, MCA etc to JEE, AIEEE, ICET, EAMCET rankers into IITs, NITs, Universities, Private Engineering & Professional colleges are conducted through web-counselling. When it was introduced for admissions into IITs, NITs there was no recognizable uproar by the students and parents. When it came to admissions into B.Tech in state Universities, Autonomous Colleges, Self-financing Private Affiliated Technical Colleges, there was lot of clamour and criticism against web-counselling.
In the case of study, in IITs, NITs, the choice of the institution is not a big matter as all these institutions have good image and brand building and are of national and international reputation.
More so, as their number is limited to 20 or 30,it is not difficult for aspiring students to have general awareness of the academic status and caliber of such institutions in terms of quality and standard of education imparted in those colleges.
Everyone is aware of the good nurturing practices of those institutions to shape the students and make them acceptable for high package jobs in fortune Multinational Companies.Hence, the candidates concerned can knowingly give their options of the colleges and coursesdepending on their rank obtained in the entrance test and track record of last cut off ranks of the previous year.They don’t have any confusion, ambiguity with regard to IITs, NITs and their relative academic stature and values.
But in the case of EAMCET rankers, opting for their choice colleges or courses became highly problematic due to several factors. Availability of large number of colleges(706) and courses (42) with lakhs of seats in both core and non-core branches is a major factor. Majority of the students and their parents are not aware of the list of good colleges having all the facilities for a reasonable teaching learning ambience and avenues for the overall development of student personality with good nurturing practices. These technical colleges in Andhra Pradesh are not graded, rated or classified by any official agency so far. The students are misguided to a great extent by college brochures, websites,brokers, incentive offers like free transport, hostel accommodation, and laptop etc. The colleges are making every effort to influence the students and woo them to their side. Some colleges are using the services of the brokers, s e n d i n g them to villages to contact the E A M C E T rankers and give them admissions a t abnormally r e d u c e d rates of tuition fee in their management quota and as well as in the prospective spot admissions and pay Rs. 10,000/- as remuneration for each student enrolled.
The number of courses/branches available is also enhancing the magnitude of the problem as majority of the students are not aware of the skills they require to study a particular branch,skills they obtain by studying that branch and where they land after completion of study. With such ignorant mental frame as to the nature of the branch and nurturing it offers,they cannot properly exercise options of the branch on their own.
In the previous system where counselling was done personally on a date/s fixed to certain range of the rank holders, the candidate were aware of the general trend like which colleges or courses are being preferred by better rank holders who have taken admission in the colleges. The trend set by better rank holders provides the required insight to the candidates while making choices. Students would be aware of the colleges,where seats have a l r e a d y been filled up and the c o l l e g e s where seats w e r e avai lable.
This helps them to m a k e c o r r e c t o p t i o n b e c a u s e ; the path is almost visible to the students. The counsellors present therealso guide the students about the list of colleges/courses where there are vacancies of seats to be filled. This is of great use to students to make up their mind and finalizeas thousands of better rank holders who already opted for admission, cannot go wrong in their judgment as to the college/course. The student used to have a satisfaction that he was not groping in the dark. In the current system, the difficulty is that the student has to take decision on his options in two or three minutes and that is almost final.Though chances of change of option was there in future sliding the physical exertion,financial expenditure, lack of awareness of good and bad colleges discourage the students to attend the future sliding and make attempts for option changes.Top rankers got their counselling done faster than others while the highest rankers had to wait for their turn.Therewere also phases for reservationbased counselling. Thus, the previous system was heavily time consuming process that used to take three or four months to complete and reduced the span of the academic year.
The new web-basedonline counselling quickened not only the process of counselling,but brought on par all rankers from top to bottom, including reservation quota,enabling to start classesfor all allottees on the same day. Thus, the new system has given many advantages to the students and reduced the admission time. The Mock web-counselling sessions at all helpline centers explain the procedure to students. Special video lectures are also helping the students a lot in exercising their options online. In fact this system is protecting the academic year by saving the number of working/teaching days of first year of study. The academic year is almost regulated by commencing the class in the third or fourth week of August whereas, in the previous system the class for first year students commencedin the last week of September or October. In the present system, there is no question of extending academic year beyond April 30 and student’s summer vacation is assured for his preparation for II year study. The admissions were given as per the choice of the students and there is no question of misguiding or influencing.Money has also been saved for students and parents as they need not travel and stay at the centers of counselling in the name of three or four slidings. Here the students can choose a verification center near to his residence from among the large number of centers and exercise options online sitting in his houseor Internet facility. By all means the process is fair with no human intervention.In the previous system, there were complaints that some officials in the counselling centers used to influence the innocent students and parents and received commissions from some college managements.
But, there are some hiccups in the current process. The absence of grading, ratingand classification of colleges by official agencies is aggravatingthe confusion of the students regarding the choice of a good college. There are many colleges which can be classified as substandard in terms of their academic practices but some official body should tell the same to the aspiring students and parents. Some newspapers, magazines, consultant agencies have taken up the job of grading/rating and have used their own parameters in evaluating the colleges which are not objective and covering all aspects. There are instances of colleges claiming that they are ranked in the first ten by so and so magazine, though their pass percentage is less than 10 in the university examinations. Such colleges are resorting to huge publicity misguiding the students and parents.It is humanly impossible for the students even to physically evaluate atleast 10 or 15 colleges where they are likely to seek admission on the basis of last year cut off ranks.
To obtain information of cut off ranks of all courses and categories most studentsdepend on consultants,brokers, booklets published by private agencies. In the case of BiPC stream students, the last cut off ranks of various UG courses like B.Sc(Agri), Horticulture, BVSc etc. are not even put on the website of admission making authorities. This is something very strange in these days of greater transparency of information. Each student must do his homework to identify a good college/s, visit it and obtain relevant information on various parameters. This is not possible to all students and parents especially to students hailing from remote and rural areas, social and economically disadvantaged groups. Some students are not aware of the location of these colleges and with sheer instinct they are opting for colleges/ courses. Due to accessibility alone,most of the students are opting for four year professional courses by default,though they don’t have the aptitude to study such courses.
Students are not focused and even a 30,000 rankholder is opting for a seat in the university college though he knows very clearly that it is next to impossible. Last year’s cut off ranks arenot correct indicators and dependable for many factors like increase in the intake, closure of colleges, not including certain colleges in the list of convenor quota for admissions, latest trend of migrating to other states, increased seekers for admission into deemed universities,opting for management quota to have definiteness of the branch instead of depending on convenor quota till the last minute with all vacillations. There is also a considerable gap between the last rank admitted in a particular branch of a college in the first counselling or allotment and the next rank that got admission in the same branch in the subsequent counselling/allotment. For example 7,000 was the last rank for a seat in ECE branch in some ‘X’ college. Later, a vacancy arose and 40,000 ranker who gave that college and branch as hisoption got the seat in that branch in subsequent counselling. The convenor website shows that 40,000 is the last rank admitted in that college and branch in the previous year. The students of this year think that 40,000 ranker will get ECE branch seat in that ‘X’ college.Information of the last rank admitted category wise in the first phase is not known to the students when they opt for the same to be admitted in the left over/nonreporting seats during the second phase.
Hence, it is proposed that the last rank in the first phase counselling and the second phase counselling shall be mentioned separately in the convenors website to give proper indication to the students. There are many first generation students, students from rural and mofusil areas, for whom the web-counselling is a great headache. They have no computer familiarity and online internet experience. In India,only 25% of the population is having reach and accessibility to IT. They have no such training in their secondary education or at the stage of Intermediate education.Such persons with little IT knowledge,at the age of 17 or 18 years exercising options online are liable to makemistakes, which would have cascading effect on their future career and destiny. Even the students hailing from urban/city atmosphere cannot claim that they can exercise options confidently.
The technical snags of Net slow, Server down, options exercised being erased due to sudden power failure, or not opting for frequent saving etc. are making matters worse. All such eventualities are well taken care off by advising the students to do good homework in identifying the choice college/course, practice filling the rough option form and final option form, make them participate in mock exercises etc. Simple mistake in entering the number of the college will land a student in some other college as there are colleges with more or less similar names with a difference of one alphabet/ word in their codes especially the colleges that belong to big groups having six or seven colleges on the same campus but started in different years, colleges having the name of the same god or goddesses etc. Cases are filed by the aggrieved students on this score and the judiciary is unable to come to their rescue at that juncture.
Many difficulties can be minimized if there is an impartial and objective grading/rating of the colleges, by expert teams, if wide publicity is given about accreditation of courses available in a college, and if some kind of guidance and awareness camps on web-counselling in junior colleges for the prospective students of professional courses, are organised and if the time gap of three or four months from the date of EAMCET examination to the date of admission available to the students is used,to get computer familiarity and command on IT tools. Because of these practical difficulties only, majority students and parents are feeling that web-counselling is complicatedand they are made to depend upon professional brokers/ consultants who charge considerable fee in helping the aspiring students in the whole process. Hence, a new clan of professionals emerged. Just as we are dependent upon lawyers for all our legal matters, chartered accountants for all our tax and financial matters, doctors for all our health matters, now the aspiring students and parents are dependent upon these middlemen to charter their course of action namely choice of college/course, entering options during counselling, change of options in subsequent counselling, getting a printed option form,allotment letter, fee challan etc.
A simple mistake in opting for a college/course at that tender age of 17 years by a student will cost him a lot in his remaining life span of nearly 55 years. Hence, the government and the admission sanctioning authorities should immediately attend and remove the lacunae in the system to build confidence and credibility among the students and parents.
(The author is Dean, SLC’s Institute of Engg & Technology)