The NRI quota in engineering colleges was once the most sought-after by college managements and students. This year, however, it has no takers. Spurred by the state government’s tighter norms on NRI-quota admissions to check malpractices like the sale of seats, the managements of engineering colleges are reluctant to offer NRI quota seats this year. In previous years, there was a heavy demand for NRI quota seats, especially in the top 50 engineering colleges. Here the managements used to fill seats at their discretion irrespective of the students securing merit in Eamcet or qualifying exam (10+2). This year, less than five colleges have applied to the All India Council for Tech-nical Education (AICTE) to seek permission to fill NRI quota seats.
The state government has recently slashed the NRI quota from 15 to 5 per cent of seats. It tightened the rules, stating that only those NRI students whose parents resided abroad should be offered seats. Now, the managements feel that it would be difficult to fill even 5 per cent NRI seats this year. The 15 per cent NRI quota was part of the 30 per cent management quota in engineering colleges. With the government reducing the NRI quota to 5 per cent, the colleges will now have to fill 25 per cent seats under the management quota for a fee of Rs 95,000 per annum. For NRI quota seats, the fee prescribed is $5,000, which amounts to nearly Rs 3 lakh per annum. The revised norms stipulate that NRI quota admissions have to be made under the supervision of the AP State Council of Higher Education. The colleges have to display the number of NRI seats offered by them before admissions.