90 per cent qualify PGECET

Hyderabad: A total of 90.31 per cent of those who have appeared for the Post Graduate Engineering Common Entrance Test (PGECET) have qualified for admission into M Tech, M E and M Pharmacy courses. The results were declared by education ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Jagadiswar Reddy and Ghanta Srinivas Rao here on Monday. The test was conducted between May 26 to May 29 and the results were out in just 16 days time.

Out of a total of 1, 08, 112 students who appeared for the test, 97,640 students have been declared qualified. Girl students continued to outshine boys for the second successive year with a qualifying percentage of 92.27 per cent. Boys registered a pass percentage of 89.19 per cent.

Among students of SCs and STs, 22,527 qualified for admission into PG engineering courses.

This year, the test was conducted in 17 subjects, one more than last year. The new subject was food technology. The total number of available seats in M Tech, ME and M Pharmacy in both university and private engineering colleges is around 72,000. The exact number will be known only after AICTE closes down accepting the new applications on June 20.

Last year, out of 71,000, around 50,000 have been filled up. Going by this, officials anticipate that more than 20,000 seats may remain unfilled this year as well. But Jagadiswar Reddy, Education Minister of Telangana state exuded confidence that in view of the huge faculty crunch, more number of students may join this time.

Osmania University, which conducted the test for the eighth successive year, has expressed its readiness to conduct the PGECET online from next year. “We made the registration process online in 2012 and if given a chance, we can conduct the test online as well on par with GATE,” Prof. A Venugopala Reddy, Convener of PGECET told The Hans India.