Students from the four engineering institutes, whose eligibility for distance learning was cancelled by the Supreme Court last year, will get to appear for a qualifying exam in June.
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which is the authority for technical education in the country, has prepared the curriculum for the qualifying exam and the applicants will have to get at least 40 per cent marks in both theory and practical exams to pass the exam. The curriculum has been put on the official website of AICTE.
Students will be tested through objective-type questions, which will include questions from both mathematics and core engineering. An expert team from the AICTE and officials from the Human Resource Development Ministry decided on what should be included in the question paper.
The Supreme Court had in December last year cancelled engineering degrees obtained between 2001 and 2005 through distance learning from four institutes and ordered authorities to conduct an examination to give students another chance to validate their degree.
According to officials in the AICTE, those who are unable to clear the June examination will get another chance to write the qualifying exam in December. Those who have not been able to register with the council will also get a chance to register before the December qualifying exam. That exam, however, will be the last chance for the applicants to validate their degree.
The colleges disqualified for long distance courses were JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth in Udaipur, the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education in Rajasthan's Churu district, Allahabad Agricultural Institute in Uttar Pradesh and Vinayaka Mission Research Foundation in Tamil Nadu. While cancelling the degrees of students obtained from these colleges, the Supreme Court further ruled that technical education cannot be provided through distance learning or correspondence courses.
THE COLLEGES
- JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Udaipur, Institute of Advanced Studies in Education, Churu, Rajasthan, Allahabad Agricultural Institute in UP and Vinayaka Mission Research Foundation, TN
