89,000 engineering seats find no takers in Tamil Nadu

Special reservation counselling, regular counselling and counselling of students who have completed Class 12 through supplementary exams, were also held by DoTE.

Despite the efforts, the TNEA committee managed to fill only 83,296 seats against the allotted 1, 72,940 seats. There are 479 engineering colleges in which 89,544 seats are vacant.

In June, Anna University had directed 92 private engineering institutes to reduce the number of students due to lack of basic facilities, faculty and infrastructure in the concerned colleges. A committee, comprising faculty members from IIT Madras, IISC Bengaluru and NIT Tiruchy, conducted inspections across 537 education institutions and found most of them not following the guidelines prescribed by Anna University.

All India Council for Technical Education chairperson Anil D. Sahasrabudhe admitted that engineering colleges have registered a dip in admission in the last few years. While speaking at the convocation ceremony of a private institute in Chennai, Sahasrabudhe said there are huge vacancies in engineering colleges due to the presence of a large number of colleges than required in the state.

Speaking on similar lines, a dean of an engineering college in Chennai, on condition of anonymity, said, “This is nothing new (seats not getting filled) as there are too many private engineering colleges that have been opened in the last few years by politicians and wealthy people.”

“There was a time when education was seen as a service, now, it has become nothing but a business. Students prefer to join the top 100 colleges but here, close to 600 engineering colleges are in operation. So, the rest of the colleges are forced to function with a small number of students,” he added.

The dean also said that barring the top colleges, the remaining must be shut down to pave the way for quality education.

Prince Gajendra Babu, a prominent educationist who runs a school in Chennai, said the failure to provide placement by colleges is another reason why students are apprehensive to study such courses.

“The students prefer colleges for placements, how many of these Institutions provide 100 per cent placement?“ he asked.

Siva Kumar, the former principal of Gudiyatham Government Arts & Science College predicted a huge employment crisis in the next five years. “Many students have moved on from engineering and are pursuing arts and science courses. The government should decide how many engineering institutions are needed in this state. It should take strict action against colleges that don’t have proper faculty,” he said.