Over 50% of engg. seats vacant this year

Students are experimenting with other courses like arts and pure sciences, says a college principal

The number of BE/B.Tech seats that have fallen vacant in self-financing engineering colleges at the end of the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA 2017) counselling has exceeded the number of candidates who were allotted seats this year.

While 86,355 seats under the government quota were allotted during the single window counselling, which ended on Friday, the number of seats that went abegging stood at 89,101. However, the number of students who opted for a seat at the counselling sessions saw a marginal increase compared to last year when only 85,853 government quota seats were filled.

Counselling began this year with 1,75,500 seats under government quota and 15,770 seats surrendered by self-financing colleges from their management quota.

A total of 2,61,692 seats were available in the State including those under management quota when counselling began on July 23.

Every year, admission to engineering is conducted after admission to medical colleges to prevent migration and the resultant vacancies.

This year, Anna University delayed admission process by nearly a month as the State government was trying to get exemption from having to use the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test scores to admit students in medical colleges.

On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected the State’s appeal for 85% reservation of seats for government students in medical admissions.

The supplementary counselling for unfilled seats in various categories under the academic and vocational stream would be conducted on August 17.

Eligible candidates may come in person to the University and apply for the same on August 16. Counselling for Adi-Dravidar students would be held on August 18. K.G. Parthiban, principal of an engineering college in Coimbatore, feels it is only a temporary cycle where students are experimenting with a new set of programmes, including arts and pure sciences.

Automation in industry

Also, fears of increased use of automation in industry have discouraged them from pursuing the usual programmes.

However, Anna University’s recent thrust on new syllabi, the concerted focus on improving employability, the government’s thrust on entrepreneurship would have a positive impact on engineering admission in the coming years, he believes.