Rupees 1m for engineering, 5m for medicine seats

The demand for management quota seats in both engineering and medical courses in the state has reached a new high this year with students paying Rs 10 lakh for an engineering seat and Rs 50 lakh for an MBBS seat.

Though the government prescribed fee for an engineering seat in management quota is Rs 83,000 and Rs 4 lakh for an MBBS seat, the huge demand for seats from parents and students has led college managements hiking the fee to exorbitant levels.

Even this has not deterred students and parents to seek admissions in these colleges, which are known to have “brand value”.

Most of the colleges have already closed admissions, although “unofficially,” as the norms of the state government does not permit them to start admissions without issuing notification for the purpose.

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Andhra Pradesh to exclude creamy layer from quota for OBCs

The state government has decided to exclude the creamy layer among the backward classes from the ambit of 29 per cent quota in all higher educational institutions.

This decision would have major implications on the admission to professional colleges and other institutions of higher education in the coming academic year.

However, the annual income limit to determine the creamy layer has been raised from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh as per the recommendations of a cabinet sub-committee.

A unanimous resolution to exclude the creamy layer from the ambit of reservations was passed at an executive council meeting of the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education held here on Thursday. Mr D. Christopher, secretary of APSCHE, said that the creamy layer decision would come to play in admissions to 2.5 lakh seats in engineering, medical, MBA, MCA and other professional courses apart from PG courses in various universities.

“In our state, there are 25 per cent reservations for BCs apart from 4 per cent reservations category,” said Mr Christopher. Officials of APSCHE and higher education department and vice-chancellors of all the universities in the state took part in the executive council meeting.

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IIMs to put off admissions, IITs rejig entry

The admissions process in the prestigious IITs and IIMs seems to have hit a rough patch in the wake of Thursday’s Supreme Court order allowing 27 per cent OBC quota in Central institutions of higher learning. While the IIMs decided to defer the announcement of their admission list by about a week, the IITs too will need to rejig their admission process a bit. The joint entrance exam (JEE) for the IITs, scheduled for April 13, will go ahead as scheduled.

A member of the Joint Admission Board (JAB), which oversees admissions to the IITs, told this newspaper that the JEE will be held as planned. But a decision on the number of admissions to be made during 2008-09 and the process that will be followed to implement quotas is a matter that will be discussed when the JAB meets on April 16. The board was scheduled to meet in any case on that date to discuss matters concerning admissions. But in the light of the court order, OBC quota and its implementation will be the main agenda for discussion, said sources.

The JAB comprises all the IIT directors, the directors of the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, and Institute of Technology-BHU (they both admit students on the basis of the JEE) and a representative of the Union ministry of human resources development. “The meeting will take the changed scenario into account,” said sources.

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