Bhubaneswar, Feb. 22: The status report for OJEE-2012 that released today showed impressive admission figures in engineering during the last academic year.
Contrary to the general impression that more than 50 per cent engineering seats in the state were lying vacant, the figures revealed by the department showed that nearly 70 per cent seats were filled up in the last academic year. Around 30,747 seats out of the total 44,242 seats have been filled up.
While 21,324 seats were filled up earlier, 1,246 students took advantage of NRI quota and 8,171 students joined through the lateral entry.
“The figures suggests that more than 75 per cent of students from the state who passed Plus Two science (with more than 45 per cent marks) were absorbed into engineering colleges,” said joint secretary technical education department Ratnakar Rout.
He said that last year about 76,000 students appeared in the Plus Two exams, which included 5,000 students from CBSE, 1,000 from ICSE and 70,000 from CHSE. Of these about 50,000 students passed with more than 45 per cent in Plus Two science.
“If we are getting about 75 per cent Plus Two science students of the state in engineering streams, we are doing much better than neighbouring states such as Andhra Pradesh where seats are lying vacant despite having more than four lakh Plus Two science pass outs every year,” Rout said, adding that allegations about students being no more interested in engineering for recession or low placement rates were false.
“The fact is we must try to get more students in Plus Two science — the feeder cadre for BTech. Only then can the seats be filled up,” he said.
Updating the status on online form fill-up for OJEE-2013, the official said that 36,352 students have already registered themselves. Also about 23,000 students will be appearing the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) exam for medical admissions. Of these 19,000 students will be appearing for the exam in Bhubaneswar. There are three centres for NEET — Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Jeypore.
