68000 engineering seats are likely to go vacant this year as per experts

Updated on: Tuesday, May 21, 2013

At least 35,000 students are expected to drop out of the race for engineering seats even before the admission process begins. Officials expect around two lakh students to submit applications for single window counselling in the state. Around 2.35 lakh applications were sold till Monday evening.

Anna University, coordinating agency for engineering admissions, has so far received 1.6 lakh filled-in applications. Tamil Nadu engineering admissions secretary V Rhymend Uthariaraj said more application forms would reach by post in the next two days and that applications sent by post would be accepted till May 20.

"We expect around 2 lakh seats to be made available through single window counselling, so there will be government quota seats for all who apply," Uthariaraj said.

Experts expect several thousands of seats to go vacant this year. "Every year the absentee rate in single window counselling is around 28%. If it is the same this year too, around 68,000 seats are likely to go vacant," said educational consultant P Moorthy Selvakumaran.

The number of those who have applied for medical courses, too, seems to have taken a hit. By Monday evening, the directorate of medical education (DME) sold 32,052 applications, apart from those downloaded from the website. So far, the DME has received around 18,000 applications. The last date for submission of applications for MBBS and BDS seats is May 20. Selection committee secretary RG Sukumar said 5,000 more may be added to the count, taking the tally to 23,000.

The numbers are, however, lower than last year's. In 2012, 39,000 applications for medical courses were bought, and 29,000 were submitted to participate in the single window counselling. Academics said the initial enthusiasm could have compelled many students to buy applications, but after knowing the likely cut-off marks and the competition, they could have given up the idea. In the present situation, six students will have to compete for one government seat. There are totally 3,655 MBBS and BDS government seats.v

68000 engineering seats are likely to go vacant this year as per experts

More Education news