CHENNAI: Higher Education Minister KP Anbalagan will release the random numbers for allotting merit-based ranks for counselling of engineering admission at 4 pm on Wednesday. There are about 2.64 lakh BE and B Tech seats under the government and management quota up for grabs for engineering aspirants in Tamil Nadu this year. Only 1.14 lakh candidates, however, have uploaded academic records for the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) 2020.
Considering the trend last year, many fear that only less than half the total number of seats would be filled this year. In 2019, only 1.5 lakh seats were taken from total available 2.8 lakh seats. Last year about 1.43 lakh seats were taken under the government quota and 29,393 seats were submitted to the government by private institutions.
Though the current year’s figures are yet to be officially announced, a source said that last year’s trend would continue this year too. This would mean that the counselling would start with about 50,000 vacant seats. According to data issued by the TNEA Secretary T Purushothaman on Tuesday, a total of 1,14,206 students uploaded their certificates by Monday, the last day for doing so.
There was a drop in the number of students who uploaded certificates this year, even as the number of applications increased by 20 per cent from last year, from 1.33 lakh to 1.6 lakh. Many suspect that this could be because many had not received their updated marksheets following revaluation.
The data also showed that 17,230 students who paid for TNEA registration did not upload their documents. The TNEA last week clarified that students could upload their provisional marksheet and that the admissions committee would import revised data directly from the Directorate of Government Exams.
After Minister KP Anbalagan releases the random numbers, certificate verification will begin at 52 TNEA Facilitation Centres across the State.