At least 16 colleges will not take part in the counselling for admission to the engineering courses this year.
While nine colleges have sought zero intake (indicating that they do not want to admit students this year), seven others have not even applied for affiliation, sources said.
According to P. Selvaraj, secretary of the Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges, the decision of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) not to allow new courses in colleges that were unable to fill 50% of the seats in the existing courses last year was the reason.
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“We met the AICTE Chairman in Delhi and asked him to allow us to introduce new courses as students are not interested in pursuing mechanical and civil engineering. But the AICTE did not comply,” he said.
The number of colleges participating in the counselling has been falling for the past four years. In 2018, 509 colleges participated in it; in 2019, the number fell to 479; and in 2020, only 461 colleges participated in the single-window counselling conducted by the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) committee.
The number of sanctioned seats also fell from 1,77,117 in 2018 to 1,57,689 last year. Engineering educators, however, attribute the dip to the low interest in engineering as a profession.
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On Wednesday, 57,513 applications were registered as of 5.30 p.m. So far, 33,552 people have made payments and 22,960 candidates have uploaded their certificates.
Classes from Aug. 18
Anna University has released the odd semester schedule. It will begin on August 18.
The last working day is November 30. The end-semester theory examinations will start on December 13.