Following the Government guidelines, the Government Arts College, Coimbatore, will start counselling on June 17.
With the last date of issue of applications being June 7, the college prepared the rank list on June 8 and the intimation to students started on June 9.
According to Controller of Examinations of the college K. Shanmuga Sundaram, the counselling schedule will be from June 17 to June 23 with a break on June 19 (Sunday).
“Rank lists have been prepared separately for the academic stream, vocational stream, Tamil literature course, and English literature course. The rank list has been displayed on the notice board from Thursday. Students who have attached a self-addressed envelope to the application will be intimated by post. Those who have not attached the same should check the rank list at the college,” he told The Hindu .
The first day would be for those belonging to the special quota such as sports, disability, ex-servicemen and National Cadet Corps. From June 18, the common counselling would begin. It would be held in three spells, viz., 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The cut-off under the academic stream would begin from 800 and end at 638. For the vocational stream, it would begin at 800 and end at 689. For Tamil literature it would begin at 200 and end at 164, while for the English Literature it would begin at 200 and end at 134. Those having the required cut-offs and not got intimation, could still attend the counselling.
All 4,973 candidates, who had submitted the applications, had been called for counselling. The college was expecting many late comers, as was the case every year. The number of seats is 1,279 in 19 courses. The college functions in two shifts and the fee ranges from Rs. 885 to Rs. 1,100 for a year. Most of the students get scholarships based on some criteria.
Once the stipulated number of seats were filled, what would happen to the fate of the rest would be anybody's guess.
Mr. Shanmuga Sundaram said that it was a pity that being the only Government college in Coimbatore, it was not able to admit eligible students earlier as it had to conform to the guidelines.
Queried upon how the Government colleges in Chennai and Tiruchi were able to admit students earlier, he said they could not have done so without violating the guidelines.
“The Government has to relax the guidelines to enable the college admit students at the same time as other colleges are doing or it has to ensure that they too admit students as per guidelines,” he said.
Faculty of the college and teachers' associations expressed concern that those who were not able to get admission in the Government Arts College would be forced to pay capitation fee and semester fee in unaided colleges to secure admissions.
Among those who had applied, a large number were from Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, and other rural areas, they said.
