Students opting for Food Science Technology courses through the Indian Council of Agricultural Research's (ICAR) All India Entrance Examination for Admission to Master Degree programmes (AIEEA-PG) 2023 are left in a fix. Though there are 19 scholarships available for the course, there are only 3 seats for hundreds of students across India. But, "This is not a discrepancy," says Dr SR Sharma, ICAR Controller of Examination.
Dr Sharma explains that the number of scholarships for a course is calculated based on the number of students opting for the course each year. "There was not much difference between the number of students last year and this year. So, the number of scholarships remained unchanged," he said. "The colleges did not send us the details of the seats on time, so the seats were not added," he added.
However, this explanation does little to calm parents and students, who are distressed with how the situation has augured. "The reservation percentage increased this year. This implies that the number of seats should be increased, but it decreased drastically. Last year, about 25 seats were available, but now it is only 2 for Food Process Engineering and 1 for Food Safety and Quality," said Dr VSSKR Naganjaneyulu, an Assistant Professor at IIIT Basara, whose daughter GV Rukmini has appeared for AIEEA-PG for Food Technology.
Rukmini secured AIR 13 in the ICAR entrance exam. She did not take admission to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad, where she obtained a seat through her PGCET score, thinking with her good ICAR All India Rank (AIR), she would surely get a seat in a reputed State Agricultural University (SAU). But with the reduced seats, her dreams were shattered. "I don't have any other career option and my family cannot financially bear this burden," she says.
Rukmini is not the only one. Sugunta Rao, who obtained AIR 10 in the Unreserved (UR) category and AIR 1 in the Scheduled Caste (SC) category in AIEEA-PG, said, "I left a seat at NIFTEM (National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management) Haryana, hoping for a seat in SAUs. According to the ICAR brochure, 7.5 per cent of seats are reserved for SC/STs. But we are not getting any seats at all."
Meanwhile, Jayasri, who bagged AIR 12 in the ICAR exam, said, "I left a seat at Osmania University. The three available seats belong to the UR category and are being offered by an SAU in Gujarat. This is not fair." The concerned students added that they were confused about the matter and said that it was a result of miscommunication.
To clear the confusion, Dr Naganjaneyulu met the ICAR Coordinator and Dr Hemant Patil, Associate Dean and Principal, of the College of Agricultural Biotechnology, at Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Agricultural University (MAU), Parbhani, Maharashtra, where his daughter was hoping for admission. "First I thought it was a technical error. But then I was told that there was a delay on the part of the universities everywhere in sending the details of seats," Dr Naganjaneyulu said.
He explained that ICAR set up a BSMA (Broad Subject Matter Area) Committee this year, which set some guidelines for seat upgradation. The universities took time to comply with the guidelines. As a result, the seats were not accepted by ICAR and could not be added to the AIEEA seat matrix.
When Edexlive asked about the delay, Dr Patil said he was not the right authority to comment on the matter, and referred the Registrar of MAU. Attempts to reach the Registrar did not bear any results. However, Dr Sharma said, "The Food Technology seats would be revised next year once universities send the seats."
But Dr Naganjaneyulu says that it would be too late, and a year's delay would affect the students' academic future. "Where is the students' fault in this?" he questions. The parent adds that solutions are still possible. "The AIEEA Counselling was conducted on December 17 and Round-1 results were declared on December 27. The seats could have been added then. Now, the second round results are due on January 8. There is still time for revising the seat matrix," he said.
Dr Naganjaneyulu raised the issue on Twitter, trying to grab the attention of the concerned authorities towards it, but to no avail. He proposes two solutions. "Either the counselling can be conducted again with a revised seat matrix, or the reserved seats for local students which are left vacant in the universities can be redistributed," he says.
