CHENNAI: Over 60,000 of a total of 1.5 lakh engineering seats have remained vacant in the State even after four rounds of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) counselling, which concluded on Sunday. Last year, after four rounds, 89,187 (59%) seats were filled.
Official data said, of the 1.5 lakh seats available for single-window counselling in 446 colleges across the State, 93,571 seats (or 60.65%) were allotted to students this year. Of this, 84,812 seats were allotted for general category students while 8,759 were allotted to 7.5% government school students quota. Of this, 60,707 seats were left vacant.
This marginal rise in enrollments is nothing for engineering colleges to celebrate. Despite adding more courses to computer science and IT departments, and better placement seasons, colleges were not able to increase their admission rates.
However, TNEA officials are hopeful that admission figures will rise further. They expect 6,000-7,000 students in the supplementary counselling, for which registration concluded on Sunday. “The last date of registration for supplementary counselling was November 13. Over 10,000 students have registered to participate in the counselling. The enrolment figures will increase,” said TNEA secretary, T Purushothaman.
Experts say there is a decline in the quality, as the number of colleges with 100% admission has decreased. There is a rise in the number of colleges with zero admissions from last year’s seven colleges to 14 colleges this time.
This year, only 12 colleges managed to fill all of their seats of which, three are private institutes. Last year, 16 colleges managed to get cent percent admissions. This time, only 66 colleges filled 90% of their seats while last year, 85 colleges filled 90%. This year, 36 colleges filled less than 10 seats (single-digit admission).
Meanwhile, as each passing year’s admission figures are dwindling, experts said the State should look into the affairs of government engineering colleges, especially Anna University’s constituent colleges.
“Of a total of 13 constituent colleges of Anna University, seven have not managed to fill even 50% of their seats this year. It’s shocking,” said career consultant, Jayprakash Gandhi. TN must improve the quality of these colleges, he added.