The state government’s decision to hold a second round of the Common Entrance Test (CET) for professional undergraduate courses such as – BCA, BBA, BMS, BBM has led to concerns of further delays in the admission process. While it will definitely delay the academic year for these courses, colleges also fear of vacancy in traditional streams after admission to these courses is finalised as many will leave their existing seats after taking admission to these professional courses. The State’s higher and technical education department decided to conduct another CET for admission to these courses following a lukewarm response to the first CET held on April 29 and 30. Even as there are over 1 lakh seats for these courses across Maharashtra, only 61,666 students appeared for the CET. As a result, many colleges offering these courses had expressed concerns of large vacancies. Dates for the second CET are not yet announced. Its registration, conduction, declaration of result and then the Centralised Admission Process (CAP) is going to take significantly more time now, which colleges fear will send the new academic calendar off-track with additional concerns over vacancy in traditional streams such as B.Com. A principal of one of the colleges says, “Many students who wanted to pursue these professional courses have taken back-up admissions in B.Com. As soon as admission to these courses conclude, such students are likely to leave their B.Com seats. This will result in vacancy in the traditional stream.” From the last academic year. admission to popular Under-Graduate (UG) courses - Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS), Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) and Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) are based on CET, unlike the conventional practice of considering Class 12 marks. This is after these courses are brought under the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Many colleges had already questioned the introduction of CET to these UG courses. Even last year, two rounds were held for this CET but it did not help in increasing the response. “This is also because many popular colleges changed the nomenclature of the course which will not require AICTE approval, thereby bypassing the requirement of CET to confirm admissions. With many other colleges raising concerns of vacancy, the state is now considering scrapping the CET,” said an official from the higher and technical education department.
