PTU allows direct entry into second semester

In order to fill vacant engineering and management seats in affiliated colleges, Punjab Technical University (PTU), like some foreign varsities, has allowed direct admission into the second semester. The students can do the first semester later.

Those admitted to the second semester directly will attend classes during summer vacations for the first semester and appear for the exam at their convenience.

The courses on offer are engineering, Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Computer Applications (MCA).

Set up in 1997, the university has nearly 110 colleges under it offering engineering courses and 139 colleges offering management and computer application courses.

Classes for first semester courses started in July and those for the second semester are to start in January.

However, hundreds of seats remain vacant. The lack of students is due to two reasons: too many colleges and many of them running without proper infrastrucure.

In at least six new colleges in Bathinda, Mandi Gobindgarh and Jalandhar districts, only 30 percent of the seats have been filled, a university official not wanting to be named told.