400 Engg seats remain vacant despite relaxed JEE criteria

PANAJI
Despite State government relaxing the mandatory JEE criteria for admissions to the engineering degree programme, close to 400 seats continued to remain vacant. While 58 non-JEE candidates managed to grab the seats, around 100, who had taken admission for the Bachelors programme, shifted for NEET based courses like medical and dental – thus leading to vacant seats.

This is the second year in a row that the government has relaxed the JEE criteria. The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) is unlikely to go for a third round of admissions for engineering.

Last year too, 500 seats had found no takers while 50 non-JEE candidates got admission.

After the first round of admissions that ended on July 5, around 400 seats were left vacant, across four engineering colleges – the situation remained the same even after the second round that ended on Wednesday.

It was only the State-run Goa Engineering College at Farmagudi who managed to fill all its seats. The college has stopped offering mining engineering programme since last year, following lack or no demand in view of closure of the iron ore mining industry.

DTE confirmed that the vacant seats are spread across private colleges – Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna; Don Bosco College of Engineering, Fatorda; Rayeshwar Institute of Engineering and Information Technology (RIEIT), Shiroda; and Agnel Institute of Technology and Design, Assagao.

“Total 102 non-JEE candidates had applied during the second round. Of which, only 58 turned up and got the admission,” DTE senior official said.

The official said that despite this, nearly 400 engineering seats got no takers. “Many, who had applied for engineering, opted out after they managed to clear the merit list for NEET based courses and got admissions to medical and dental,” the officer said.

DTE had extended the benefit to students who have cleared Class XII and also Diploma holders but had not answered JEE.

In case of Class XII applicants, the applicant had to secure minimum 45 per cent (40 per cent in case of SC, ST and OBC) marks in Physics, Maths and one other specified subject, whereas, the Diploma holders in any branch of Engineering has to have 45 per cent (40 per cent in case of SC, ST and OBC) aggregate marks.

For the first time in 2024 after around two decades, the government altered the criteria for the admissions to the engineering seats, replacing JEE with the Goa Common Entrance Test (GCET).