From the next academic year, graduates with a computer science background will be allowed to directly enrol in the second year of Masters of Computer Applications (MCA) degree programme in colleges and universities across India.
The move is on the lines of the existing lateral entry admissions into BE/BTech degree courses for polytechnic diploma holders. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has approved a policy decision to allow graduates in Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA), BSc Information Technology and BSc Computer Science to get lateral entry admissions into MCA course from 2013-14.
The aspirants must have studied Mathematics as a subject in higher secondary level or in their undergraduate degree programme. This would enable BCA and BSc (Computer Science & IT) graduates to obtain a MCA degree in two years instead of the usual three year period.
Aspirants must have obtained at least 50% (45% in case of candidate belonging to reserved category) aggregate score in the qualifying examination.
Explaining the rationale behind the move, AICTE Member Secretary KP Issac said, “BCA and BSc (Computer Science & IT) graduates have already studied the subjects that are taught in the MCA first year. Hence, we decided to allow them to directly join the second year of MCA.”
However, P. Thangavel, Head of the Department of Computer Science, University of Madras, felt, this was not a welcome move. “With universities having the freedom to change their syllabus, the course content would vary from one university to another. So, there could be few subjects which BCA or BSc (IT / Computer Science) graduates might not study in their under graduation. MCA comprises multi-discipline inputs. Therefore, we cannot fix syllabus keeping in mind only BCA or B Sc (IT / Computer Science) graduates,” he said.
Thangavel felt that this could also lead to confusion during admission. “In case all the sanctioned seats are filled in the first year itself, then how would you be able to accommodate the lateral entry students,” he asked.
Academics also feared this move could also affect the admission in the first year itself. “Nearly 70 percent of students who joined MCA programme last year were BCA graduates and another 10-15 percent students were those who studied B Sc (Computer Science / Information Technology,” said C Meiaraj, coordinator of Tamil Nadu MBA / MCA Admissions 2012. With the option of lateral entry to second year available, BCA and B Sc (Computer Science / Information Technology) graduates will only opt for that, rather than studying one additional year. This will affect admissions in the first year, a professor said.
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