Certificate verification for Tamilnadu engineering admission held at Tirunelveli government engineering college. (Photo | V Karthikalagu, EPS)
CHENNAI: As expected, Computer Science and allied streams remained the favourites of top rank holders of the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) this year. Almost 35 per cent of the seats allotted in the first round were for Computer Science and Engineering (CSE); this is almost 10 per cent more than last year.
As many as 3,572 seats were allotted in CSE stream. While 1,766 students opted for Electronics and Communication Engineering, only 478 chose mechanical engineering; for civil engineering, it was a meagre 245. This was revealed in the provisional seat allotment list, released by the TNEA on Tuesday for the first round.
Of the 14,842 students who had been called for first-round counselling, 10,187 (68.6 per cent) were allotted seats. That’s almost seven per cent rise from last year’s figures. Experts attributed this rise to 100 per cent pass percentage in Class XII results. “More students are interested in studying engineering,” said S Senthil, a faculty member of a private engineering college.
A major concern among experts is the waning popularity of government colleges. As per data available after the first round, government institutions, except for the College of Engineering Guindy (CEG) and the MIT campus of the Anna University, failed to attract top rank holders.
“There are not many takers for institutes like Alagappa College of Technology (ACTECH), Annamalai University, and the University College of Engineering. Only 286 of the 487 seats at ACTECH, 600 of the 640 seats at MIT, and 833 of the 902 seats at CEG were filled after the first round,” said career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi. He attributed the trend to poor infrastructure, lack of advanced laboratories, and lack of tie-ups with corporate bodies.
Central Electrochemical Research Institute, Karaikudi, and two private colleges, SSN college of Engineering and Thiagarajar College of Engineering feature among the five most-preferred colleges in the first round.
