Kerala: Tech colleges plan own entrance test

KOCHI: The Admission Supervisory Committee (ASC) headed by Justice R. Rajendra Babu is set to conduct an engineering entrance test named Kerala Engineering Entrance (KEE-2018) for BTech management seat admission to 120 self-financing engineering colleges under the Kerala Self-Financing Engineering College Managements Association (KSFECMA) on May 13. The entrance test is being conducted in the wake of low demand for the management seats in SF engineering colleges in the state. Even after the minimum eligibility of securing 10 marks in each subject in the entrance test conducted by the Commissioner of Engineering Entrance (CEE) was relaxed, there was not enough flow to fill the seats in these SF colleges during the term of the last government.

According to a member of the association of itself, however, after this government came to power, this was not allowed and in its place, the test by the ASC was allowed. In the first year, the engineering colleges got a paltry 500 students for the test and last year it rose to 2,000 students. This year they have advanced the proceedings to get more students.  “There is a widespread talk now that not many students are applying for the CEE’s entrance test and hence we are expecting more students for our test,” he said.

The lapsed seats from the government quota seats also will be filled through KEE.  Interestingly, it’s learnt that there is yet to be clarity on negative marks in the exam though an advertisement in this regard says about negative marking. In the KEE also, students need to secure minimum 10 marks in each paper. The last date to apply is May 2 while the results will be declared on May 19. All 14 district headquarters have been scheduled as exams centres, but in case the number of candidates in a centre goes below 100, they will be allotted the nearest district as exam centre.