Chennai: Engineering aspirants need to undertake an all India Engineering Entrance Test from 2018-19, according to AICTE chairman Anil D. Sahasrabudhe. He was in the city to participate at All India Council for Technical Education’s (AICTE) startup policy 2016 dissemination workshop on Wednesday. “The idea behind this test is to reduce the burden of the poor students who have to face various entrance tests conducted by private deemed universities and state governments to get admission to engineering courses,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the workshop.“The student will get opportunities to pursue engineering courses in multiple places based on a single test,” he added. He further said, “It would be conducted twice or thrice a year so the student can prepare better and clear the test.”
AICTE has invited proposals for counselling, whether it should be common or conducted state wise. When asked about the Tamil Nadu context where the number of seats is more than the number of applicants, he said, “The colleges can admit students from outside the states in the vacant seats. But, the first preference will be given to the state students.”AICTE has decided not to give fresh approval for the engineering courses that have less than 30 per cent admissions of the approved intake for five years in a row. “If we have a 30 per cent vacancy it is not viable to run the course,” Professor Anil D Sahasrabudhe said. While speaking at the workshop he called for flexible curriculum, allowing the students to aggressively take up entrepreneurship. Higher Education minister K.P. Anbalagan inaugurated the workshop. K. Rajaraman, director, Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Sanjay Inamdar and Sanjay Vijayakumar, both members AICTE startup policy committee, Anna University registrar S Ganesan, G Ravikumar, director, the centre for Entrepreneurship Development, Anna University also spoke at the workshop.
