Common Entrance Exam for Engineering From 2018

The forest called “engineering entrance exams” has been set on fire. After numerous recommendations, the HRD ministry on 10^th Feb, finally, has passed AICTE’s proposal for a common entrance test for engineering. The ministry has asked AICTE to develop an exam for the engineering aspirants based on medical entrance exam NEET. The exam will be used for all B.Tech admissions in the country from 2018-19.

What’s New?

According to various sources, the new exam will be conducted more than once a year. Also, to solve the issue of regional students, it has been said that the new exam will be conducted in more than 5 local languages.

However, it has been reported that the IITs will not come under the umbrella of this new exam. IITs will most likely continue to use JEE Advanced scores for admitting students to their courses.

The Current System

Currently, there are 30+ entrance exams at state and national level for engineering admissions in India. This includes the State entrance exams like WBJEE, UPSEE, exams held by private universities like Manipal (MUOET), VITEEE (VIT Vellore) and the centrally conducted JEE.

“There are so many entrance exams for engineering admissions in the country. Keeping an eye on each of these exams become a headache for students”, said a parent. Besides creating extra pressure, these exams also add a lot to their pockets.

“Let us consider that an exam form costs Rs 1,000. Now if an aspirant takes, say, 20 of these entrance exams, then his entrance exam applications alone end up costing Rs. 20,000 in gross. An amount like this is huge for economically poor students. “, said a student preparing for JEE 2017.

However, apart from these above-mentioned problems, some students have a different opinion to this pool of exams. “These forms do cost a lot of amounts, but aren’t they adding more opportunities?”, asked Shubham, a resident of Jaipur.

Opposition from Private Institutes

While most of the students and parents have welcomed the decision with mixed reactions, the private institutions are mainly seemed to have a denial mode. According to our research, many private institutes actually fear to lose the top notch students due to this scheme. Putting up a common entrance exam will definitely add more transparency to the counseling process. Also, the quality of admission will become more dependent on college’s actual position in the industry rather than advertising.

Many of the current private institutions/university gain quality admissions through extensive marketing of their institutes in the public space. The addition of a common entrance exam will definitely kill this trend.

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