Reserved quota seats become merit seats

Even though some colleges had initially allowed intra-departmental transfer as transfer certificate was not needed for the purpose, the university authorities intervened to stop it. This meant that students with more than 85 per cent marks were denied a chance to change to another course of their choice even though there were vacancies. However, a student with 60 per cent marks, who was not admitted to any course, was given the chance to seek admission to this seat.

Spot admission was held to nearly 60 seats covering five Government colleges, four aided colleges and two unaided colleges in the city. This was because there was a feeling that there was only a remote chance to fill vacancies that would arise if students, already admitted, were allowed to migrate.

Many reserved quota seats were turned into merit quota seats due to the unscientific procedures followed by the University Computer Centre, which supervised the centralized admission process for degree courses.The result was that many meritorious students were denied seats of their choice due the Kerala University’s glitches even after the spot admissions.

Earlier, the university filled the vacancies of reserved candidates simultaneously with that of merit quota admissions. Till last year, the reservation quota was held only after merit quota admissions. The total seats thus lost to reservation category came to around 69 but this was solved by providing additional seats to reserved category students.

The university had also filled the seats reserved for physically disabled students as merit quota due to the problems in the software. It was later solved by providing nine additional seats for physically disabled students, sources said.

Though University Computer Centre Director S.S.Vinod Chandra had earlier given an assurance that students with higher marks would not be denied facilities to go in for higher option, it did not materialize during the spot allotment.