The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : New Pilani admission norms put students in a fix

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 04, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

New Pilani admission norms put students in a fix

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 3. Ramya of DAV Matriculation School here is a topper from Tamil Nadu in Plus-Two. But she has no hope of getting a seat in the prestigious Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS), Pilani. Reason: BITS-Pilani has announced that it will admit students to its popular B.E/B.Tech. courses only on the basis of scores secured in the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) following an order of the Rajasthan High Court.

Till now BITS has been admitting students on the basis of merit — marks in the Plus-Two examination.

V. Rajagopalan, father of Ramya (who got 1185/1200), and another student, Chaitanya, also from DAV Matriculation School, say that top students from Tamil Nadu have always nurtured hopes of studying in BITS. Traditionally, students from Tamil Nadu take a large chunk of the seats at BITS. "The BITS prospectus for 2004-05 clearly stated that admission would be based on normalised marks obtained in Standard XII examinations, exactly like the procedure followed all these years. The last date for applying was June 30 and the results were expected the same day.

"We were shocked when the BITS web site announced on June 27 that pursuant to the High Court's order, the admissions would be based on performance in the AIEEE examinations."

In an appeal sent to the President, the students described their predicament, as they had not taken the AIEEE. "This sudden change in the admission criteria at this stage is unfair. The least the authorities could have done was to introduce the new procedure from 2005-06 and not this year," the appeal noted.

Some of the students and parents met in Chennai and discussed the options before them, including seeking legal remedy in the Supreme Court. But, a few of the parents felt that the process could further delay the admissions.

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