Thiruvananthapuram: Entrance prospectus before February 10

Thiruvananthapuram: With the appointment of M. Geetha as the new Commissioner for Entrance Examinations, the work to bring out prospectus for the engineering entrance examinations has been expedited.

Ms Geetha took charge  on Thursday. Sources said that one of the demands to the new commissioner would be reduction in eligibility criteria for engineering admissions due to rise in number of vacant seats in self finan-cing engineering colleges last year.

At present candidates must pass Higher Secondary Examination, Kerala or equivalent examinati-on with 50 percent marks in Mathematics separately and 50 percent marks in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry put together.

For admissions under management quota candidates must have 45 percent marks in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry put together.

Joint Commissioner for Entrance Examinations A. Anvar told DC that the prospectus would be released a day before the application process begin. The application process would begin before February 10. The Engineering Entrance Examination will be conducted across the 14 district centers in Kerala and in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Dubai.

The schedule is as follows: April 22: Paper I-Physics, Chemistry-10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. April 23: Paper II -Mathematics - 10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.

There were 18,298 vacant engineering seats, mostly in private self-financing colleges, in the state last year. Of the total 33,012 government quota seats, 14,714 were allotted to engineering colleges.

There are a total of 54,225 seats and only government quota seats are allotted from the counselling conducted by the commissioner for entrance examinations. The management quota and NRI seats are conducted by the managements.

Since 2016, the number of engineering seats has been on the decline across the country. In 2016-17, the total intake for BTech in the country was 15, 71,220. However, the total enrolment was 7, 87,127, which was around 50.1 per cent