CHENNAI: To ensure better enrolment in postgraduate engineering courses, Anna University has decided to conduct counselling for MTech and ME programmes at the campus colleges, constituent colleges, government and government-aided colleges this month.
Earlier, PG admissions were held during September-October; by then most students would have already been admitted into leading colleges such as IITs and NITs, so the seats remained vacant, said R Velraj, vice-chancellor of Anna University. “This year the number of PG admissions will increase as we have decided to hold the counselling in June,” he said.
Of the 2,650 PG seats in Anna University and the government colleges, nearly 65% remained vacant last year.
“An interesting trend we noticed last year was that PG seats in premier colleges like CEG remained vacant, but a handful of private colleges, which had struggled to fill BTech seats, filled out their PG courses. Students who just want the degree for namesake without ever attending classes prefer such private colleges. We have decided to keep a tab on such admissions this year,” Velraj added.
PG counselling for Anna University and government colleges will be held this month, while for affiliated colleges it will be held at a later date. “Private colleges need to get approval from AICTE, and the process takes time due to which the counselling process gets delayed,” said a faculty member of the university.
This year, Anna University has conducted two entrance tests for PG courses - Tamil Nadu Common Entrance Test (TANCET) and Common Engineering Entrance Test and Admissions (CEETA-PG).
Another faculty of the university stated that one reason for poor enrolment in PG courses is that the they are mostly pursued by those interested in academia and research. As more BTech students are opting to work, the demand for MTech courses is reducing with each passing year.