Chennai: Putting an end to the hardships faced by lakhs of students and parents who have to travel all the way to Chennai every year to attend the single window engineering counselling held in the Anna University, the process for online engineering counselling is set to begin with the registration of applications from Thursday.
Students can register online until May 30. Then the certificate verification is likely to take place in the first week of June at the TNEA Facilitation Centres (TFCs) across the state.
“Students can now fill their applications and choice of courses from their home. They need not come to Chennai for this purpose,” said V. Rhymend Uthariaraj, secretary, Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA).
The state government took a decision to conduct online counselling from next academic year after it was not able to fill the vacant seats arisen after medical counselling. Due to the confusion over Neet, the medical counselling was postponed and held after engineering counselling last year.
Anna University has come up with a robust system for conducting online counselling. It is also putting up 42 TFCs across the state to help the rural students.
“We will issue a booklet containing all the information about the engineering colleges to students and frequently asked questions. We will also release the cut-off marks of last three years to help the students to make the informed choice,” he said.
The university will also publish the academic performance of the colleges on the website. The online engineering counselling will be conducted in five rounds and each round will be held for five days.
Students will get three days to fill their choices and two days to freeze their choices. “Students can give any number of options. But, they have to properly arrange it and give to get the best option. Within the round, the students can also move upward in their choices if the top rankers leave those choices,”he explained.
The registration of application is also been simplified. A video of fifteen minutes explaining the procedures of online counselling will also be played at the facilitation centres.
The Anna University is also planning to release the video on YouTube.
“Tamil Nadu state board students studying this year need not fill up even his marks as the TNEA wants to get the marks from the directorate of government examinations,” said career consultant Jayaprakash A.Gandhi.
“One of the biggest advantages of the system is that it gives the students 48 hours after getting the provisional allotment. It will surely help the students to verify the colleges and branches they are selected. It was not available in the offline mode,” he said adding that there is a need to create awareness about the advantages of online counselling among the students and parents.
He also advised making college focused choices instead of branches. “There is a chance for upward mobility within the round and students should fill their choices carefully,” he said.
Anna University Vice-Chancellor M.K. Surappa said, “The online counselling is designed to help the students especially from the rural areas. They need not travel all the way to Chennai with their parents. The students can fill the applications.”
“There is sufficient time for the students to consult their parents and teachers before opting for colleges and branches. They will be given sufficient information and time in online counselling,” he said. Last year, 1,41,077 students applied for the engineering counselling.
TNEA Facilitation Centre (TFC)
Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) has established 42 TNEA facilitation centres (TFCs) covering all districts to help rural students and for applicants who do not have access to the internet. The candidates can use the TFCs for application registration as well. The original certificate verification will take place at these centres and the candidates can choose any one of centres which are close to their residence. Candidates can also use these centres during online counselling for entering their choices and confirm the allotment of seats.
