Govt engineering colleges shout out ‘outside’ students

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, September 10, 2007
THE STATE on Monday shut the doors of government-run engineering colleges on students living outside West Bengal. Such students can still take the WBJEE but, irrespective of rank, they can seek admission only to private engineering colleges.
The government gave its two autonomous universities the freedom to follow or ignore this rule, but Jadavpur University welcomed the idea and appeared set to shut out outstation students. “We had wanted such a decision,” vice-chancellor S.K. Sanyal said.
The other university, Bengal Engineering and Science University, will decide after consulting the Centre. “We are slated to become an Institute of National Importance and whatever we do now is will be subject to the Centre’s approval,” vice-chancellor N.R. Banerjea said.
Apart from the two universities, the state has six government engineering colleges —two in Kolkata, including one at Salt Lake, and one each in Kalyani, Jalpaiguri, Serampore and Behrampore. Together with the two universities, they offer nearly 2,100 of the state’s 17,000 engineering seats.
In the last two years, outstation students filled up 25 to 35 per cent in government engineering colleges. The state-run medical colleges, in contrast, take in no one from outside under a policy already in place. The decision on engineering will come into effect from next year.
Higher education minister Sudarshan Roy Chowdhury justified the decision. “Other states have such a policy and we don’t want Bengal to be an exception. Like those states, we too have to think of our own students,” he said.
The state wants its own students to benefit from the subsidised fees at government colleges, which charge only Rs 10,000 a year as tuition fee. “Private colleges charge Rs 43,000 as tuition fee and there are other expenses as well,” an official said.
The WBJEE will also do away with most of its outstation centres, retaining only one (Agartala) out of the present 14. “There are logistics problems, so students will have to come here. We are keeping Agartala as a consideration for Northeast students,” the minister said.
The WBJEE board will meet on Tuesday to discuss changes in the pattern and administration for next year’s examination. The minister wants objective-type questions along with multiple-choice ones. Rules for obtaining domicile certificates will also be tightened.
mou.chakraborty@hindustantimes.com