Bhubaneswar, April 12: The number of forms sold in this year’s Orissa Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) has been the highest in recent times. This has made promoters of technical education in the state optimistic.

About 85,400 forms have been sold this year against 72,000 forms in 2010, leaving at least 15,000 seats vacant.

Although 80,000 forms were sold in 2009, the numbers went down drastically in the following year. In 2008, only 78,000 forms were sold.

The reason for the increase in sale of forms has been attributed to good campus recruitment.

“Campus recruitment has been very encouraging this year. In fact, 60 per cent of the students in almost all institutes have already been offered jobs and the placement season will continue till the end of this month.

“While the established colleges are doing well, the new ones are also getting good response from the recruiters,” said Binod Das of Orissa Private Engineering College Association.

While there has been a high demand for students from computer-related courses, students from core branches such as mechanical and electronic engineering are also in good demand.

“Word of mouth travels faster and the response is better than other forms of campaigning. Once people come to know that jobs are available, they will not hesitate to invest money in technical education. Moreover, people still go by what their relative, acquaintances and friends suggest,” said student Girija Sahoo.

“Availability of jobs means a better payback period and that is exactly what parents and students look for,” he said

It is believed that the stay order issued by Orissa High Court also added to the increase in sale of forms.

In the last week of March, the high court, issued the interim order on a petition filed by Orissa Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) on behalf of 139 institutions (including 47 for MCA) approved by the AICTE and affiliated to the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) on the eligibility criteria of 50 per cent marks for general and 45 per cent marks for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students fixed by the Orissa JEE authorities as per the new AICTE guidelines for applying to appear the entrance test this year JEE authorities had this time increased the number of outstation centres from seven to 15 in order to rope in more students.

The NRI quotas had also been reduced from 15 to five per cent.