CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu added nearly 8,850 engineering seats to the TNEA counselling pool this year, but admissions failed to keep pace with the addition of seats. After the conclusion of all three rounds of general counselling, over 53,000 seats remained vacant.
Of the 1,81,436 seats available under academic general counselling in TNEA 2026, 1,27,573, or 70.31%, have been filled. At the same stage last year, 1,30,077 of the 1,72,589 seats had been taken, an occupancy rate of 75.36%.
While the number of available seats increased by 8,847 this year, the number of seats filled fell by 2,504. This resulted in vacancies rising to 53,863 from 42,512 last year, an increase of more than 11,300 seats.
Of the 422 participating institutions, only 30 have filled all their seats, compared to 39 last year. The number of colleges achieving more than 90% admissions has dropped from 164 to 112, while institutions with less than 10% of their seats filled have increased from 32 to 39.
More than 1.04 lakh candidates participated in the third round of counselling, resulting in 52,915 allotments, including 2,248 students who upgraded from seats allotted in the previous rounds.
P Selvaraj, secretary of the Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges, said the expansion of intake in deemed universities was among the factors affecting enrolment in engineering colleges, particularly those in rural areas.
“Earlier, there was a cap of 120 seats per branch. Now, institutions with National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and NAAC accreditation can increase seats substantially. This concentration of admissions in a few deemed institutions is affecting enrolment in rural colleges,” he said.
Career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi said the numbers also showed a growing preference among students for established colleges in Chennai and Coimbatore, even if that meant giving up their preferred branch. “Students are now prioritising institutions with better placement records. Chennai and Coimbatore continue to attract the highest admissions,” he said.
TNEA data shows that Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) and Computer Science Engineering (CSE) remain the most sought-after branches, while core disciplines such as Civil and Mechanical Engineering are among the least preferred. At the same time, Data Visualization and Data Science, Generative AI and Machine Learning, and Marine Engineering failed to attract even a single allotment.
Gandhi also described online choice filling as a hurdle for rural students and cautioned that the rapid expansion of CSE seats could create a placement bottleneck by 2030. He urged the state to encourage programmes aligned with emerging demand in semiconductors, VLSI, embedded systems and electric vehicle technologies.
TNEA secretary T Purushothaman said August 31 was the last date to register for supplementary counselling.
