CHENNAI: As the Tamil Nadu engineering admissions have come to an end, 50,514 out of the total 1,44,652 seats in various colleges are lying vacant. The percentage of the seats filled this year is 65.08%, which is higher than the figures in the last 5 years. Last year, only 59.90% of seats were filled.
Citing the data, academic experts said the interest among students to join engineering courses has improved. However, only 16 colleges managed to fill their seats fully at the end of the academic counselling this year. It was 12 last year. A total of 11 colleges couldn’t fill even a single seat this year while 14 colleges did not get any admission last year.
According to data, 68 colleges filled more than 95% of their seats, 104 colleges filled over 90%, 186 colleges filled over 80% and 263 colleges filled over 50%. Three government colleges - University College of Engineering at Dindigul, Ariyalur and Nagapattinam - couldn’t fill 50% of their seats.
“Anna University should review the colleges which filled less than 10% of their seats. Among the courses, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Electronics and Communication Engineering and Information Technology were the most preferred among the students. Almost 45% of the seats filled have gone to Computer Science and IT-related courses. Among the major core branches, mechanical and civil were the least preferred. The craze for engineering has definitely increased as more seats have been filled,” said career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi.
According to the government data, the sanctioned intake in 442 engineering colleges across the state is 21,9346. Of this, 1,60,780 seats were available for single-window counselling. Of this, 1,48,721 seats are for general category and 12,059 for government school students under the 7.5% reservation.
A total of 95,046 seats (including vocational) were allotted this year, and 80,951 students have been admitted to the colleges as of August 31 this year in the general category. Under 7.5% reservation, 11,058 students were allotted seats and 8,457 have been admitted.