Thiruvananthapuram: The self-financing engineering college managements are trying to avoid a confrontation with the government which has insisted that it would not allow the managements to admit students in vacant seats if they have not qualified for the entrance examinations.
The admission supervisory committee headed by Justice J.M. James has made it clear that it will not approve of the admission of students who did not get the minimum 10 marks in the qualifying examinations. A section of managements had earlier threatened to stay away from the agreement with the government if they are not allowed to admit students who did not write the entrance examinations and also those who did not get the minimum 10 marks needed for qualifying the entrance examinations.
They pointed out that as many as 11,000 seats were vacant even in the government quota seats in self- financing colleges. Of the 119 self-financing colleges, 60 were on the verge of closure due to the lack of students. However, a group headed by Mr K. Sasikumar, president of Kerala Self-Financing Engineering College Management Association (KSFECMA), even threatened to resign from the association if it stayed away from the agreement with the government.
Mr Sasikumar said that if the association kept off the pact, other colleges which were now having students would also not get adequate number of students for admissions. Moreover, the decision would not help attract students to the colleges that were now having vacant seats. Now all the colleges have understood the reality and agreed to discuss the issue at the general body of the association, Mr Sasikumar said.
