At the end of three rounds of counselling for engineering admissions, 1,21,708 candidates (general and vocational streams) have been allotted BE/B.Tech seats, including 12,915 students from government schools.
In the 3rd round the results for which were released on Wednesday, 4,698 government school students and 46,722 candidates in the general category were allotted seats, Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions 2024 committee officials said.
Analysis by R. Ashwin, an independent career guidance counsellor from Coimbatore, found that 109 colleges filled over 90% of the allotted seats while 81 among them filled 95% seats.
Of the 1,62,392 seats under single window counselling in 433 colleges, around 66.39% (1,07,805) seats were filled, and 54,587 seats are vacant. TNEA will conduct supplementary counselling in the coming days.
No vacancies exist in the general category in 29 colleges while in 7 colleges no seat was filled.
Among the colleges that filled 100% seats 15 are government institutions, including three centrally funded ones, and 14 self-financing autonomous colleges.
Colleges in Coimbatore have been preferred while in Chennai, only Anna University’s departments, the SSN College of Engineering and the Chennai Institute of Technology have filled all seats.
While the government engineering colleges in Bargur, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Erode, Tirunelveli and Salem, Anna University’s regional campus in Coimbatore have seen good admission, the University’s constituent colleges have lagged.
University colleges shunned
Some university colleges have not improved their admission when compared to last year. Over 40% seats are vacant in the university colleges in Panruti (66.87%); Pattukkottai (63.84%); Dindigul (62.77%); Ramanathapuram (59.18%); Thoothukudi (54.61%); and Ariyalur (50.46%).
“As the pass percentage is low there are not many jobs. No placement means students will keep away,” Mr. Ashwin pointed out.
This year the All India Institute of Technical Education permitted colleges to add seats. “Colleges added 30,000 seats, all in Computer Science and Engineering and related programmes. Of this, 15,540 more seats have been taken,” Mr. Ashwin said.
Poor understanding
Students from the preferential reservation category for government schools have chosen seats even in colleges with poor pass percentage, Mr. Ashwin’s analysis found. In the category as many as 430 colleges had filled around 75% of their intake.
“It is a good thing that students have used the opportunity to study but they have not understood the importance of selecting a good college. Such students will end up doing nothing with their education,” Mr. Ashwin cautioned.
Education consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi termed the admission “an all-time high when compared to the last five years.” He said it was surprising that as many as 20 of the 38 colleges among the top performers were not the first choice of students. “Over 20 colleges were sought only in the final round. Anna University should strictly review colleges that filled less than 10% of their seats in the academic counselling,” he said.
Published - September 04, 2024 08:02 pm IST
