Chennai: Students are showing a fresh interest in engineering courses as is evident from the number registered online for counselling which has touched 2.40 lakh this year. This is in sharp contrast to the downtrend in the last few years.
This is a one-third increase in the number of applications compared to last year when Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) committee received only 1.54 lakh applications. It is expected that around two lakh seats would be available for single window counselling this year. The surge in interest this year is surprising as more than one lakh seats fell vacant in counselling last year.
P.K.Nagarajan, Principal, S.A. Engineering College, Chennai, said, “This is mainly due to the higher campus placements last year. In our college, more than 550 students got placed out of 700 last year.”
“Even our management quota seats also are filling faster this year. Compared to students from arts and science colleges, engineering students who got selected in campus interviews are paid well. They are getting between '2.4 lakh and '3 lakh per annum,” he said.
Last year, there was more demand for students for computer science engineering and information technology. “In the last few years, many students didn’t opt for computer science engineering and information technology. Now again the need for these two branches has increased,” he added.
Career consultant Jayaprakash A. Gandhi said there is definitely an increase in the number of students opting for engineering courses. He pointed out that making B.Ed. degree as a two-year programme contributed to an increase in B.E. applications. He said the controversy over common medical entrance test had not played any role in the increase.
“Only two thousand-odd students can enter into medical courses. So I don’t think it contributed to an increase in engineering applications.” Anna University officials cautioned against drawing comparisons based on online registration numbers.
“Though over 2.40 lakh registered for engineering counselling, only 1.69 lakh have paid the fees. So we have to wait until May 31 to know the exact numbers,” they said.But even considering the number of students who paid the fees, there is a significant increase of 10 per cent compared to last year.
