Chennai: Anna University’s single window counselling for engineering colleges in the state started with 44,966 seats vacant even before the counselling began on Wednesday. Of the 2,017 students called to attend counselling on the first day, 757 (37.53 per cent) didn't turn up. Seven candidates who joined private medical colleges surrendered their seats to take up engineering. Of the 23 students who scored 200 on 200 cut-off marks, 14 abstained from counselling this year.
Interestingly, this year the university did not affiliate any new engineering college. However it included union government's Indian Institute of Handloom Technology, Salem, with 30 seats. As in the past, electronics & communication engineering (355 students) and mechanical engineering (313 students) turned out to be the most sought after streams among toppers. However, computer science had not lost its charm with 245 candidates joining the course.
A total of 1,48,231 students applied to attend academic counselling for 1,93,197 seats, leaving 44,966 seats vacant. This year private engineering colleges had surrendered 23,000 seats.
Asked about the absentees, Prof V. Rhymend Uthariaraj, secretary for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA), said that every year several top rankers got into medical colleges, few went abroad for higher studies and a couple of others got admitted to IITs.
"Every year we used to have similar number of students surrendering medical seats and taking up engineering, besides on the first two days we will have more absentees," he said. Responding to a question about 45,000 seats going vacant on day one of counselling, the TNEA secretary said the number of students who joined engineering colleges remained the same from 2010 but there was an increase in seats going up from 1,20,020 in 2010 to 2,11,786 in 2014 with new engineering colleges being opened.
First, second, seventh and eighth rank students opted for mechanical engineering; third, fifth, ninth and tenth rankers took electronics and communication engineering while fourth and sixth candidates preferred electrical and electronics engineering & computer science respectively. Among boys, mechanical engineering was the favourite and. Girls preferred electronics & communication engineering.
Computer engineering sees a revival
Eminent academician and career counselor, Jayaprakash A. Gandhi said if the current trend of absenteeism in government's single window counselling for engineering colleges continues over one lakh seats could go vacant this year. “Last year 36 per cent of engineering aspirants abstained from counselling similarly we can see the same trend this year too on day one of counselling. This year we witness a revival of admissions in computer science and engineering, which will be welcomed by the IT industry,” Gandhi said.
Terming the craze for electronics & communication engineering and mechanical engineering a fallacy, the career counsellor said that companies like Amazon and Microsoft recruited students from computer science stream in Anna University rather than ECE and mechanical.
“At least 100 tier-4 colleges would find it difficult to fill less than 10 seats this year as students have started looking at colleges rather than courses. City students prefer computer science and rural ones go for mechanical as they think it would offer more job opportunities,” he said.
Gandhi pointed out that rural students were satisfied with a job even with a low pay packet prompting them to opt for mechanical whereas city students want to earn more so they turn towards computer science.
