CHENNAI: After being delayed for weeks following the confusion surrounding medical admissions, counselling for engineering and allied courses finally kicked off on Monday, starting with vocational courses.“The schedule was fixed assuming the counselling for medical students would begin by July 17. However, with the Supreme Court still seized with the petitions over the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET), they are unable to fix the date. Hence, we decided to go ahead with engineering counselling,” said Higher Education Minister KP Anbalagan.
The minister pointed out an earlier SC direction that engineering colleges should commence classes by September 1.The counselling for engineering courses is normally held after medical courses counselling, as there are many instances of high scoring students applying for both, and preferring the medical seat if they get admitted in both engineering and medical streams. This leaves the engineering seat vacant.
Last year, medical counselling was held between June 20 and 25, while engineering counselling was from June 27 to July 21.As there are larger number of applicants, engineering counselling process is longer and more complicated, said the minister, adding the authorities were prepared to deal with desertions.
Anbalagan announced the rank list of the top 10 vocational candidates, which included a candidate with disability, Arunkumar S. All facilities have been arranged for women candidates, he said, adding that those whose counselling starts at 7 am may avail accommodation the previous night, while those who have counselling at 7 pm can get accommodation for the night.As the counselling for vocational courses kicked off, two institutes from Coimbatore, PSG College of Technology and Coimbatore Institute of Technology, were the hot favourites.
THE BIG PICTURE
Total number of applications received for engineering counselling: 1,41,077
Eligible students: 1,36,988
Total number of seats for both Engineering and BArch: 2,61,692 (Government quota 1,75,500 seats and management quota 86,192 seats)
Managements have surrendered 15,770 seats to government quota