CHENNAI: As much as 2% of the seats in engineering counselling will be reserved for sportspersons from the next academic year, Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy said on Monday, after inaugurating the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) counselling.
TNEA receives over 2,000 applications annually under the sports quota, but it has only 500 seats allocated under this reservation category. Minister Ponmudy said due to the lack of an adequate number of seats under this category, many students eligible under the sports quota are unable to pursue engineering courses.
He also said that the Naan Mudhalvan scheme has helped in increasing the enrollment of students in higher education, and underscored that the focus will be on enhancing the employability skills of students.
Counselling for the 7.5% government school students quota commenced on Monday. Students with disabilities, wards of ex-servicemen, and sports persons under this reservation category took part. The counselling for general category will begin from July 29.
As many as 1.79 lakh engineering seats in 433 engineering colleges are available for counselling, while the TNEA has released a rank list for 1.99 lakh students.
In another development, the Department of Biomedical Engineering was inaugurated at Anna University by scientist Soumya Swaminathan. Officials from the university said the institute’s Medical Electronics Department was converted to the Biomedical Engineering Department.