Maharashtra relaxes admission criteria for engineering and professional courses

In a notification late Friday, the department announced modifications in the eligibility conditions and requirements for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate professional courses in Maharashtra’s colleges

Admission to Maharashtra’s engineering colleges will now be easier for aspirants as the state’s higher and technical education department has reduced the cut-off by 5% for Class 12 scores.

For admission to engineering courses, the candidates should have obtained at least 45% (Representative Photo)

In a notification late Friday, the department announced modifications in the eligibility conditions and requirements for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate professional courses in Maharashtra’s colleges.

For admission to engineering courses, the candidates should have obtained at least 45% (taken together) in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics in their Class 12 exams and a non-zero score in the state Common Entrance Test (CET). The cut-off for students from backward classes and economically weaker sections is 40%, the same as persons with disability.

Earlier, the cut-off was 50% in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics (taken together) in Class 12 exams for general category students and 45% for backward category students.

Along with engineering, the cut-offs for admissions to undergraduate courses in Pharmacy, Hotel Management and Catering Technologies, Law, Fine Arts, and Design, have also been reduced by 5% in higher secondary exams.

Sources in the government said they have reduced cut-offs to attract more students in these streams.

Over the past few years, there have been substantial vacancies in Maharashtra’s engineering colleges. In 2019-20, almost 50% of the engineering seats in the state were vacant and in 2018-19, almost 56% were vacant. The number of vacancies was more pronounced in traditional engineering courses. The state government and the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE)—the governing body for all technical institutes—have introduced a slew of measures to fill the vacancies.

In fact, Maharashtra is one of the six states that requested AICTE to not approve any newer engineering colleges.

An official in the CET cell, requesting anonymity, said that engineering courses, particularly new ones such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, were still in demand.

“This year, close to 5.32 lakh candidates have registered for the CET, which is almost a lakh more than 2019. This shows that students are interested in studying engineering,” said the official.