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Surfeit of BCA seats, no takers Thursday, September 27, 2001

TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: Gujarat University may have given fresh approval to eight BCA colleges but no one seems elated about it. The fresh admission process for the 960 seats in these colleges began on Wednesday and already there are signs that many students may not opt for them.

On the first day, 352 forms were sold. Considering that the maximum rush for application forms is on the first day, the signs look ominous. A fear is that only students with less marks will apply to these colleges, impairing the reputation of the course.

The worries are compounded by the general recession in the economy and the IT industry in a spiralling downturn. "The industry needs more BCAs, but they are not the only ones we need," says Rajan Vasa, managing director of Contech Software Limited. "Ideally, I would like to see only 25 per cent effort in creating BCAs and 75 per cent in creating MCAs and high-end engineers."

Applitech Solutions' corporate relations head Kapil Mittal prefers to be blunt. "We hardly ever employ BCAs as they have no idea of industry requirements," he says. "Often they have to be retrained to bring them up to industry standards."

Gujarat University's executive council spent much of the last few months debating whether or not the approval should be given, with the new Congress MLA from Sabarmati Narhari Amin even going to court over norms being allegedly flouted and some approvals being held back. Important work like repairing the university buildings damaged in the earthquake, were put on hold as the power bodies of the university went into intricate details like whether need can be established on the basis of the distance between two colleges.

Finally almost all trusts were allowed to open BCA colleges and not every one is sure if it was such a good thing after all. Students with higher marks have found their way to medical and engineering colleges. Those with good marks and wanting admissions specifically in BCA applied for the eight established colleges leaving only those students who have barely 50 per cent mark.

In fact, first indications of students losing interest in BCA came a couple of months back when the reputed colleges began admissions. Only 2,300 students applied for 960 seats, compared to last year's 6,000. Most trusts, however, did not read the signals and continued demanding new colleges. As an official put it, "The hype on IT has fizzled and it is about time we realise that."

News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]

 

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