CHENNAI: Information and Communication Technology-related courses continue to be the most preferred among engineering aspirants, as over half the number of students (18,025 out of 36,126), who participated in Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions 2018, chose either computer science, electronics and communication or information technology. Computer Science was the most sought after course with 7,578 students opting for it, followed closely by Electronics and Communication with 7,571 students picking it. In both streams, less than five per cent of students preferred taking seats in self-financed colleges.
While mechanical engineering is still the third most preferred stream, career consultants claim that there is a sharp decline in frenzy over the course. While 5,807 students were allotted a mechanical engineering seat, only 181 (3 per cent) chose the course in self-financed colleges.“The job market is moving more and more towards automation and courses like mechanical and civil engineering are losing relevance,” Jayaprakash Gandhi, a career consultant, said, adding that many colleges that surrendered their information technology courses in the previous years regret their decision.
“Several private colleges shut down IT streams and opened mechanical courses. Now these private colleges are struggling to fill the seats. Only 30 self-financed colleges have filled over half their seats despite counselling moving to third round,” he said.Only a small portion of the students who studied courses such as mechanical, civil, electrical and automobile engineering got placements in their core field, said Prince Gajendrababu, general-secretary of the State Platform for Common School System (SPCSS –TN).
“There was a boom in engineering in-take as courses such as mechanical and civil offered placements. But most students from these streams were placed in software and IT companies and were trained by BCA graduates. Students don’t want to do these courses to ultimately work in a software company anymore,” he said, claiming that this was the reason that Information and Communication Technology-related courses remained popular.
Further more, about a third of eligible candidates, who registered for TNEA, did not participate in it. Only 65 per cent of eligible candidates paid fees for their allotted courses. “Initially we thought that students had missed the deadline to pay fees. But when we checked with them, many of them had already paid fees in other colleges for streams like agriculture or arts and science,” said TNEA selection secretary V Rhymend Uthariaraj.