1.70 lakh applications sold for engineering courses

Updated on: Wednesday, June 01, 2011

About 1.70 lakh application forms have been sold for admission to engineering colleges in the State through single window counselling.

“About 1.65 lakh forms were sold through the 62 centres in the State, including postal applications. About 5,000 students registered through the Net. In total, 1.70 lakh students have applied for engineering admissions,” says V. Rhymend Uthariaraj, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA 2011).

Last year, 2.04 lakh students applied. There is a difference of 30,000 compared to this year. “It does not mean students have lost interest in engineering. This year, the sale of applications started after mark sheets were distributed. Even last year, only 1.69 lakh students applied despite the sale of forms crossing 2 lakh,” he explains.

Assuming that only the eligible candidates had purchased the applications, he expects the trends of last year's admission to continue this year as well. Already, 57,000 forms had been scanned.

Students could check online the status of their application forms at every stage of processing. The coding sheets would also be scanned and made available online so that students could verify their marks. After proper scrutiny, the candidates would be declared eligible or not eligible. Last year, about 5,000 students were found to be not eligible. The entire process could take about three to four days. After the scanning of the documents, allocation of random numbers and ranking would be taken up, followed by fixing counselling dates, which would be available online and also informed through call letters. “The objective is to remove the anxiety of students and parents and inform the status of applications at every stage,” says Mr. Uthariaraj.

In TNEA 2010, the total number of engineering colleges that participated in the single window admission was 472 in which 1.11 lakh students who attended counselling were allotted seats. The total number of seats under the government quota was 1.20 lakh last year and the seats left vacant were 8,172.

In TNEA 2011, 488 engineering colleges, including 460 self-financing colleges have been enlisted for admissions. About 40 more are trying to get permission from All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to start courses this academic year. Anna University officials expect the total number of seats available under single window counselling to be around 1.30 lakh. Considering the trend, the number of vacant seats in engineering this year could go up, officials say.

1.70 lakh applications sold for engineering courses

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