Gujarat: GUJCET and 12th Scores Mandatory for Admission in Engineering Courses, JEE Optional

As per the latest notification brought out by the Gujarat State Government, the admission into engineering colleges of the state will be based on Gujarat Common Entrance Test (GUJCET) and Class XII scores.

Before that, admissions to state engineering colleges were done through JEE. Now the all India level JEE exam has been made optional for Gujarat students.

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The move will benefit students of Gujarat board who do not aim to compete nationally and also wish to study locally. Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Education Minister of the Gujarat said that admission into state engineering colleges will be done on the basis of merit while giving 60 percent weightage to class 12 scores and 40 percent weightage to GujCET scores.

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The minister also said that JEE has been made optional for students that want to take admission on all India quota seats and to the universities that count JEE scores. Earlier JEE was mandatory for students and it had caused a lot of problems for them. For the students, it was not only a cause of wastage of money, unnecessary efforts but caused a lot of tension and stress. It was a hurdle especially for those who do not wish to go study outside Gujarat.

In the year 2009, Gujarat adopted JEE as a mandatory exam for engineering admissions in the state. For the first time, the exam was being conducted in the Gujarati language. As a result, the state witnessed a major jump in the number of aspirants who were being enrolled into IITs and other top-notch engineering colleges of the country. As per the report, in 2009 nearly 150 students took admission into IITs and several other institutions of national repute. The number increased to 1200 students (800% increase) in 2015.