The Department of Higher Education, UT Ladakh, has secured 16 seats for students from Ladakh in Technical Courses ( Diploma Level)  for the academic session 2024-25 across eight states. This decision follows a proposal by the Department of Higher Education, UT of Ladakh, to include Ladakh in the Government of India scheme, which reserves seats in Engineering and Diploma Level Technical courses for States/Union Territories lacking infrastructure in Technical Education.

The 16 reserved seats are for diploma courses in Mechanical Engineering, Pharmacy, Textile Technology, Library and Information Science, Automobile Engineering, Bio-Medical Engineering, and Fashion Designing. These courses will be available in institutes located in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Chandigarh, Karnataka and Gujarat.

Eligibility for these diploma courses varies: students who clear 10th Board exams can apply for Mechanical Engineering, Textile Technology, Library and Information Science, Automobile Engineering, Bio-Medical Engineering, and Fashion Designing, while those who clear Class XII Board exams are eligible for the Pharmacy seats.

Currently, while the CBSE results have been declared, the results of JKBOSE are awaited. Applications for the scheme will be invited immediately after the results for Class X and XII under JKBOSE are announced.

In the previous academic year 2023-24, 22 seats were reserved for Degree level Engineering courses in branches such as Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Architecture and Planning, Automobile Engineering, Electronic and Communication Engineering, Textile Technology, and Mechanical Engineering. These seats were allocated in Engineering Colleges across Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Kolkata, Karnataka, Gujarat, Hyderabad, and Tamil Nadu. The Department of Higher Education successfully admitted 19 students under this scheme during the 2023-24 academic session.

The scheme is set to continue in 2024-25, offering opportunities for students from Ladakh to pursue an engineering degree.