Chennai: Despite trimming of intake of students by colleges, private engineering institutions in Tamil Nadu have surrendered 18,614 management quota seats to the single window counselling as on Monday.
Counselling for general quota seats is scheduled to begin from June 27. Around 1.73 lakh government quota seats are available for single-window counselling conducted by Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions committee.
“This year, private engineering colleges have surrendered 12,072 seats. Private minority institutions have surrendered 6,542 seats for allotment through counselling. The number will increase 2,000 more as a few more colleges are also in the process of surrendering their seats,” sources in the directorate of technical education said.
Last year, more than 20,000 management quota seats were surrendered by private colleges. This year, the surrendered management quota seats will be slightly more, the sources said.
Of the total seats in private engineering colleges, 65 per cent should be surrendered to government. The remaining 35 per cent belongs to management quota which engineering colleges fill on their own. In minority institutions, only 50 per cent of seats are surrendered for single window counselling.
A private engineering college principal said declining interest in engineering courses among students is the main reason for surrendering of seats.
Experts pointed out that the demand for engineering seats in Tamil Nadu is around 1.5 lakh whereas the state has more than 2.5 lakh seats. So, private colleges are not able to fill their management quota seats. They also suggested that these colleges have to attract students from outside the State to fill vacant seats.
