The number of engineering seats in Goa have gone up by over 35% in the last two years. The demand in the state is going up for electronics communication and mechanical engineering degree courses, while civil engineering is a less preferred stream.

The state-run Goa Engineering College (GEC), which was set up more than forty years ago, added the mining course last year with an intake of 30 seats. ""A booming mining industry in Goa provides mining engineers ample career opportunities within the state itself. But the lack of a mining course in Goa was forcing students to opt for institutes in far away states like Bihar until last year,"" deputy director for technical education in Goa, Pradip Kusnur, said.

The mining engineering course has taken up GEC's seats up to 410.

With only three engineering colleges in the state - the RIET at Shiroda with an intake of 189 seats and the Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna with 252 seats, other than GEC - Goan aspirants were forced to turn to engineering colleges in the neighbouring states of Maharashtra and Karnataka until 2010.

But before the last academic year 2011-12 could begin, the Don Bosco College of Engineering in south Goa was granted approval by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for 252 seats in computer, mechanical, electronics communication and civil engineering streams.

This year, the Fr Agnel College of Engineering in north Gao was given a nod by AICTE for 180 seats in electronics communication, mechanical and computer engineering.

All the new engineering seats have taken the number of seats up in Goa from 810 two years ago to 1272 during the current academic year.

Officials said that rise in the number of engineering seats will not mean the quality of students is compromised. ""These students from Goa would opt for courses outside the state when they could not get into the Goa colleges anyway and would become qualified engineers and come back to the state. These students can now study in the state itself,"" Kusnur said.

Source: TOI

Read Amore About Goa Engineering College (GEC)

This time, there will be only two rounds of counselling for bachelor of technology (BTech) and bachelor of architecture (BArch) courses of Punjab Technical University (PTU).

This time, there will be only two rounds of counselling for bachelor of technology (BTech) and bachelor of architecture (BArch) courses of Punjab Technical University (PTU). Counselling under the fee waiver scheme will also be done simultaneously.

According to this schedule announced by PTU, admissions would be on the basis of AIEEE merit and in four universities of the state and affiliated colleges. The universities include PTU Jalandhar, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar; Panjabi University, Patiala, and Punjab Agriculture University in Ludhiana.

University officials said the primary reason for reducing the number of counselling rounds from three to two was that with three counselling rounds, studies start in September as admissions and reporting time of the students in the third round would extend till August.

However, it is learnt that the latest decision would give more room to colleges and after counselling sessions, the colleges can fill the seats on their own by making merit on basis of applications reaching them directly.

According to information provided by the admission cell of the university, the last date of fee submission for the first counselling session is June 27 and for second session is July 1 to 13. In the second round, fee submission will be made compulsory for those students who failed to submit their fee in the first round.

University VC Dr Rajneesh Arora said 85% seats would be reserved for students from Punjab and 15% seats would allotted to outsiders.

Source: TOI

Know More About AIEEE, PTU

First-year engineering students will have to re-appear for three of their papers.

Mumbai University has decided to conduct the re-examinations on June 14, 16 and 18. The decision, taken at the board of examination (BoE) meeting on Friday, follows confirmation by the crime branch of Mumbai Police earlier in the week that the papers had indeed leaked.

The papers in question are applied mathematics-II and applied physics-II (for first-year second-semester students), and basic electrical and electronics engineering (BEEE; for ATKT-allowed to keep term-students), and will be held in the same sequence on the aforementioned dates. The time will be as per the previous schedule.

A five-point action plan has been initiated by the university after the crime branch's investigation showed loopholes in the examination section. "Firstly, we are suspending all four teachers arrested in the case so far. We will issue show-cause notices to them, asking them to explain why their approval should not be cancelled. They will be given seven days to respond to the notice," said pro-vice-chancellor (PVC) Naresh Chandra.

The university, in an official release, expressed regret over the re-examinations, which will be conducted for more than 21,000 students. "The decision has been taken with a heavy heart, after weighing all consequences. The (university) is sympathetic to all students. We understand that they are being subjected to great inconveniences due to the precarious activities of some teachers," the PVC said. A three member committee set up by the university and led by professor Madhu Paranjpe was critical of the compromises that the university made in terms of security in its most sensitive department.

The university has now decided to overhaul its examination section. It has decided to undertake several "capacity-building activities" for teaching staff of colleges: teachers will be askedto undergo technical and administrative training programmes. The university is also looking at professionalizing the process of conducting examinations.

Source: TOI

Universal Sevak University Trust (USUT) is an educational trust promoted with the sole objective of spreading education among the poor, downtrodden, especially school drop-out children aged 16 years and above.

USUT, which has joined hands with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), is offering four courses in Automobile Engineering — Automobile basic functions & Maintenance, Automobile Electrical works, Automobile Body Repair works and Automobile Painting works — with the duration of six months for each course.

The courses will help students to become self sustained and acquire a formal institutionally approved qualification, enabling them to enter into jobs in the organised sector.

The first two batches of practical job-oriented courses have been completed and the third batch will be starting soon.

Awareness programme

The students are trained in mind-body coordination to bring out the power within them. Awareness programmes about environment cleanliness, first aid, waste management, sports event, gardening, planting of trees are the other areas in which the students are trained.

Source: The Hindu

Well-known career consultant and analyst Jayaprakash A.Gandhi urged the students to opt for Civil Engineering in view of the huge potential and promising jobs in the next few years.

Based on a scientific analysis and placement statistics, he asserted that four branches of engineering will have ‘distinct advantage' in the order of Civil, EEE, Computer Science and IT.

Mr. Gandhi made a comprehensive presentation on what would be the trends like in this year's engineering admission counselling of Anna University (which will commence in July) at ‘The Hindu Education Plus' Career Counselling Fair 2012 held here on Saturday .

“What I speak is like reality bites. Don't get carried away by what people say because you have to take a right career decision after completing Plus Two. I can confidently say through my analysis that this year you should go for B.E. (Civil) which will have promising jobs in the year 2015,” he said.

According to him, Civil Engineering will be better than mechanical and taking EEE will be better than going for ECE. Giving a general view about which branch the students should choose, the career analyst had told them not to live in a fantasy and not to get carried away by wrong advice.

Mr. Gandhi asked the parents also to follow the order of preference suggested by him by admitting their children in either B.E. Civil or EEE or computer science or IT.

Another advice given by him was that the parents or students should not think that only students of engineering colleges in cities will have exposure and that others will not have it.

“College buildings and location are not important for companies recruiting students. There are good colleges across the State and you have to do some homework to locate them,” he said.
Looking at the future

Emphasising and reiterating that the four branches suggested by him will turn out to be the best options, the career analyst informed that a student has to choose a career by looking at the future prospects and not based on past data.

“A couple of years back, I had recommended ECE in my presentations. But, that is reaching a saturation point whereas electronics and civil are going to have a boom in coming years. The Government spending in the fields of infrastructure and electronics is set to rise and a huge boom in civil and electronics is certain,” Mr. Gandhi said.

Sourcee: The Hindu