In a move that has been labelled as biased against previous year’s diploma pass-outs, the Gujarat education department and Admission Committee for Professional Courses (ACPC) has taken a serious step. It has decided to place diploma pass-outs from earlier years behind those passing in the current year in the merit list for Diploma to Degree Common Entrance Test (DDCET).
This has drawn criticism from a section of students who, in a written representation to the ACPC and Gujarat Technological University (GTU), have argued that when diploma to degree admissions are based on an entrance test, the test score, and not the year of passing out, should be a factor to determine merit rank.
Students cry foul
Students argue that this biased admission policy is hindering their chances of securing a higher merit rank despite achieving the same DDCET score as students passing out in the year of the exam.
“For instance, a student set to pass a diploma course in 2025 and taking the DDCET in 2025 scores X marks.
A student who passed diploma in 2024 gets the same score in the DDCET in 2025. But both will have a different merit rank. The latter will be pushed down the merit list after the 2025 pass-outs. This means that despite having the same score, the 2024 pass-out doesn’t have the same opportunity to get admission in the same college,” explained a student who has submitted a written representation to ACPC and GTU.
History of discontent
DDCET was first conducted in 2024 with the aim of evaluating diploma students from all universities through a single entrance exam. Students claim they voiced their concerns even in the first year of implementation, but their grievances were ignored. They have once again made representations this year. “Even in JEE, NEET and other entrance tests, merit is prepared based solely on the exam score, and there is no such bias of pushing previous year pass-outs to a lower merit rank. We fail to under- stand why DDCET is an exception,” the student added.
GTU registrar KN Kher stated that their role is limited to conducting exams. ACPC member secretary Nilay Bhuptani explained that the norms for preparing merit were the same as those for D2D admission before DDCET. When asked if the entrance test score should be the final determinant of merit, Bhuptani said, “I will review and discuss the norms to check viability.” DDCET scores are used for diploma students seeking admission to the second year of degree courses, including engineering and pharmacy