TN: 40,000 BE seats may fall vacant

COIMBATORE: With an estimated 40,000 BE/BTech seats under the government quota expected to have no takers this year, self-financing engineering colleges are keen on offering these seats to students hailing from States other than Tamil Nadu.  Interestingly, the institutions instead of seeking to appropriate these seats under the management quota, which would fetch a higher price, are willing to have them filled through the single window counselling of the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA 2011) itself.“We have approached the State Higher Education Minister requesting him to consider allotting the vacant seats to students belonging to other States without insisting on nativity certificates. In our representation, we have suggested that a supplementary counselling can be held from August 12 onwards to allot these seats to non-Tamil Nadu students,” K Paramasivam, president, Association of Management of Coimbatore Anna University Affiliated Colleges told Express.Normally, the vacant seats are transferred to the management quota. But colleges would find it difficult to attract students on their own, whereas, under the single window counselling it would be easy to fill up some of these seats. Also, when the seats are offered for a lesser fees, it would wean away students from other States, who would otherwise opt to join the deemed universities. However, he did not expect private engineering colleges to be in deep trouble because of the vacant seats.“The large numbers of estimated vacancies are due to the fact that this year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has granted approval for 30 new engineering colleges and also sanctioned the introduction of additional courses in many existing colleges,” he argued. Presently, students who are non-natives of Tamil Nadu are not allowed to participate in the single window counselling and are forced to buy seats under the management quota. Only 52 seats at the Anna University are reserved for other State candidates. As on August 8, over 95,600 BE/BTech seats were filled under the TNEA  counselling and more than 53,400 seats were vacant.