Students upset after quota cut for diploma holders in BTech

The decision of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to slash the intake of diploma holders in second-year engineering courses from 20% to 10% has

The decision of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to slash the intake of diploma holders in second-year engineering courses from 20% to 10% has affected a large number of students. Students said that after this decision of the council some sought-after engineering colleges have less than five seats up for grabs, making it difficult for diploma holders to compete.

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Until 2018-19, a student who enrolled for the three-year diploma course after Class 10 could seek lateral entry to second-year BTech. In 2019-20, the AICTE released an approval handbook and informed colleges that lateral entry to second-year degree courses be capped to a maximum of 10% of the approved intake capacity of the institute.

Students said the change in the rule has affected a large number of students and many are planning to take up the matter to the Supreme Court.

“I enrolled for the three-year polytechnic [diploma] course in computer engineering in 2018-19, right after Class 10, hoping that I will be allowed lateral entry into second year BTech in 2020-21. However, with the lateral entry reservation slashed by half, our choices have reduced,” said Ayush Sharma, a diploma student. “We have requested the AICTE to implement such changes only after three years, but we haven’t heard from the council yet,” said another affected student.

According to information shared by the polytechnic department, Maharashtra has around 735 diploma institutes spread across the state with an intake capacity of 1.6 lakh.

While students are still struggling to seek help from the AICTE as well as the state government to reverse this rule change, officials from AICTE said this move will help fill up vacancies in engineering colleges and upgrade the quality of technical education. “There are a lot of vacancies in first-year BTech courses and diploma students who can’t get lateral entry in second-year engineering can opt for first-year engineering without any hassle,” said a senior official at AICTE.

Diploma holders, however, are not happy about wasting one year of education in diploma and once again starting BTech studies from the first year, instead of the second year. “Such changes affect lakhs of students across the country and such decisions should not be taken without taking the stakeholders into consideration. We plan to take up this matter with higher authorities,” said another student.