Maha makes entrance test compulsory for 7 UG agriculture courses

Till now, admission to only three technical agricultural courses that were conducted through MH-CET

Students aspiring for seven undergraduate agriculture courses in the state will now have to take either the state or national entrance tests for engineering, pharmacy or health science courses, said officials from Maharashtra Council for Agricultural Education Research (MCAER) and state Common Entrance Test (CET) cell.

According to Anand Rayate, commissioner of CET cell, the state cabinet last year included agricultural courses in the list of professional courses such as medicine, engineering and management. (Representational photo/Getty Images)

Till now, admission to only three technical agricultural courses — BTech Bio-Technology, BTech Food Technology and BTech Agricultural Engineering — were conducted through MH-CET, the state’s entrance test for engineering and pharmacy. The aspirants for PG courses and PhD were also admitted on the basis of entrance tests.

For the remaining seven non-technical courses, MCAER will accept the scores of a entrance tests including both physics-chemistry-mathematics and physics-chemistry-biology sections of MH-CET, Joint Entrance Examination (Main and Advanced) and National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET). The students from outside Maharashtra can seek admission on the basis of entrance tests of their respective states.

“The scores of various entrance tests will be naturalised for students taking multiple tests. The highest scores will be considered,” said HK Kausadikar, director (education), MCAER.

According to Anand Rayate, commissioner of CET cell, the state cabinet last year included agricultural courses in the list of professional courses such as medicine, engineering and management. As a result, the courses came under the ambit of Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Fees) Act, 2015, which requires a centralised admission on the basis of a common test.

Pramod Rasal, associate dean, College of Agriculture, Pune, said the introduction of entrance test will have little effect on the admission to agricultural courses. “The demand for agricultural courses far exceeds the availability of seats. The number of students applying for admission keeps rising every year,” he said.

This year, number of available seats in undergraduate agriculture courses went up by 300. More than 99% seats were filled.