Now, online facility for college admissions

PUNE: The Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) on Tuesday announced the launch of an online application facility for admissions to first year degree courses at about nine universities spread across the state.

Students can use this facility through a dedicated portal --- www.ugpgadmission.com. After registering on the website, a student can fill up the admission form through online, take a print and submit it to the college concerned.

This facility will be an optional choice for students apart from the regular process wherein a student can approach a college, get the form and submit it.

Vivek Sawant, managing director of MKCL, said that nine universities have partnered for the online process. These include, Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada university (Aurangabad), Mumbai university (Mumbai), North Maharashtra university (Jalgaon), Rashtrsant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur university (Nagpur), Sant Gadgebaba Amravati university (Amravati), Solapur university (Solapur), SNDT women's university (Mumbai), Shivaji university (Kolhapur) and Gondwana university (Gadchiroli).

Sawant said, "Information about the various courses run by about 3,000 colleges affiliated to these universities has been uploaded on the site. A student can easily secure information of any particular course run by affiliated colleges for the academic year 2012-13. The system will eliminate multiple visits to every college to secure information of courses and admission forms. Besides, it will assist the students in making appropriate choice of subjects and thereby help in restricting errors in the application forms."

The students will receive an SMS after completion of the process of uploading of forms. Accessibility to the site is also available at the MKCL's MS-CIT centres.

Sawant further said that the website has provided multiple choice options wherein a student can apply at more than one college. About 3 lakh students are expected to avail of this facility. Students will be able to access the information on the site from May 21 onwards, a few days ahead of declaration of standard XII results.

Over 17,000 students secure middle school scholarship in Maharashtra

PUNE: A total of 17,552 students have secured the middle school scholarship in the state, exam for which was held by the Maharashtra State Council of Examinations on March 18.

A statement issued by the council here on Wednesday said the result of the middle school scholarship for std IV was announced online on May 1.

The scholarship examinations for middle and high schools in the state went hi-tech from this year, with the introduction of Optical Mark Readable (OMR) answer sheets for objective type papers, as is done in common entrance tests for engineering and medical courses. The compilation of results was done by way of a computerised data entry process. The OMR sheets, which can be read by a computer, ensured an even faster processing of the results, the statement said.

About 7.43 lakh students had registered for the exam of which 6.99 lakh appeared. About 3.62 lakh students cleared the examination and 17,552 students were selected for an award of scholarship. The statement said that each district has been awarded 10 scholarships on line of national general scholarships besides the quota for rural and urban students, those from the scheduled caste, children of landless farm labourers, rural tribal students and those from the Vidarbha region.

The merit list for rural areas containing 116 names and merit list for urban areas containing 106 names, plus a merit list of 50 students from CBSE/ICSE boards have been put up on the exam council website www. mscepune.in

AICTE clears 17 new tech institutions in state

PUNE: At least 17 new technical institutions, which include engineering colleges, will go functional in the state from the coming academic year 2012-13. 

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which regulates technical education in the country, has cleared these institutions as part of the approval process for new institutions, new courses and variation in student intake for 2012-13. 

AICTE's officiating chairman S S Mantha told TOI on Wednesday, "We received 669 applications for new institutions including engineering, polytechnics, management, pharmacy, architecture and applied arts colleges, among others. Of these, 76 proposals including 17 from Maharashtra have been cleared. All the remaining proposals have been rejected." 

Mantha said details about the approved institutions and their sanctioned intake will be released in a day or two. "We have now moved into the appeals process for those institutions whose applications have been rejected," he said. 

The AICTE started the approval process for 2012-13 by seeking online submission of proposals between October and December 2011. The process for scrutiny of these proposals had begun in January and ended on March 31. 

Mantha said, "Of the 669 pleas, 307 were for new polytechnics and the remaining applications were for degree and post-graduate institutions for engineering, management and other technical courses. There were 119 applications from Maharashtra." 

The state government had earlier written to the AICTE urging that no new engineering colleges be sanctioned this year in view of the large number of engineering seats going vacant for the last few years in the state. 

As of now, Maharashtra accounts for nearly 325 engineering colleges that collectively have a student intake of over 1.20 lakh seats. For the last two years, the engineering colleges in the state have reported close to 20,000 vacant seats. 

Mantha said, "We received the letter from the Maharashtra government and we discussed the issue at our meeting too. However, applying a sudden brake on the process of approving new institutions is not a practical solution considering the gestation period for any institution to reach the state where it can apply for approval." 

"Usually, it takes around two years for an institution to have all the necessary ground work in place, including raising capital, making investments in new buildings, labs and allied infrastructure and meeting other norms before it can move an application for approval before the AICTE. We cannot suddenly say no to these institutions," he said. 

Mantha, however, said that the council was conscious about the concerns raised by Maharashtra as well as the other state governments regarding vacant seats. "We will review our policy for approval of new institutions which intend to start from 2014-15," he said. 

Fill-in AFMC MBBS Exam 2012 applications from Feb 6

Pune: The Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) Pune has announced that the prospectus and application form for AFMC MBBS Entrance Examination 2012 will be available only online from February 6, 2012. The AFMC MBBS course, commencing from August 1, 2012, has a total of 130 seats, including a maximum of 25 girls and ten seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe candidates. An advisory issued from the institute today said that, "There will be no sale of Prospectus and application forms this year at Post Offices. Candidates are advised NOT to send any Demand drafts /Bank drafts/Postal orders to AFMC. Candidates who submit their forms online are NOT required to send anything to AFMC Pune at all. Those candidates, who are unable to upload photo and scanned signature, will have to send the filled and downloaded form to AFMC Pune after affixing photograph, signature.". CLICK HERE FOR AFMC APPLICATION FORMS AFMC conducts a national level entrance exam for students who want to get admission to Armed Forces Medical College Pune. AFMC is the first medical institute set up by the Armed Forces of any country in Asia. After completion of MBBS course from AFMC, students can work at least for 7 years in armed forces. CLICK HERE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT AFMC MBBS ENTRANCE EXAM 2012

AFMC Medical application to be available online from Feb 6

Pune: Applications are invited towards the MBBS entrance examination for Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) that is to be held on May 6, 2012.

AFMC Pune has announced that the prospectus and application form will be available only on online from February 6, 2012.

Forthcoming academic year commences from August 1, 2012 which would have a total of 130 seats, including a maximum of 25 girls and ten seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste / Scheduled Tribe candidates.

AFMC conducts a national level written entrance exam for students in subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Intelligence, logic, Reasoning and English Language and comprehension.

After completion of MBBS course from AFMC, students can work at least for 7 years in armed forces.

For more details log on to www.afmc.nic.in