Students prefer to play waiting game on seats

Chennai: With lack of jobs and about 80,000 seats going vacant in over 500 engineering colleges in the state last year, engineering aspirants seem to have decided to wait till the government’s single window counselling starts in July rather than book a management quota seat before that.

An enquiry with engineering college administrators revealed that the number of enquiries from students had been less compared to the corresponding period last year. Some private colleges have even reduced their capitation fee by 10 to 15 per cent to attract more students.

The chairman of an engineering college, on condition of anonymity, said last year over 1,000 engineering aspirants from all over the state visited their college with enquiries on availability of seats, but in the corresponding period this year, they had less than 300 students.

“We are not certain as to how many of these 300 will become our prospective students as we have over five months for the results to be announced and engineering counselling to start: so we have to wait and watch,” the chairman said.

Another administrator was of the opinion that mushrooming of engineering colleges with a mismatch in demand and supply led to this situation. “With less than 400 engineering colleges and about 1 lakh seats five years ago, we had more students taking up engineering courses but today, the seat matrix has changed a lot. Now we have the survival of the fittest situation, only the top college survives with more students joining it,” the chairman said.

Saravanan, a parent who was seen busy enquiring about availability of seat in one of the top engineering colleges in the city, said he wanted to avoid last-minute rush for which he had come to the college but his son wants him to wait till government counselling to check out his chance.

Jayaprakash A. Gandhi, eminent academician and one who visits most of the engineering colleges in the state to counsel students on a regular basis, says that students are looking at other options, too.

So, they want to wait and watch until the government’s single window counselling begins in June-July. “They don’t want to get into some second rated college in a hurry and later repent if they get a good college through government’s counselling; that’s why you have fewer enquiries now,” he said.

Next: Boys look for careers in cars

Boys look for careers in cars

Chennai: Despite lack of job opportunities in the core engineering sector, boys seem to prefer Mechanical engineering, Electronics-Communication engineering and Civil engineering, whereas girls look for Electronics and Communication engineering, Computer Science and Instrumentation.

“Several automobile companies have opened shop not only in Tamil Nadu but in other parts of the country also. It is not that we will work only in a particular state after we graduate, but anywhere where we get a job. So, I want to use this opportunity to get placed in an automobile company for which I would join mechanical engineering,” said Suresh Kumar, an engineering aspirant.

Sararthy, another student, had a different take on the placement scenario. “Any stream you join, at the end you will join an IT company. So, it doesn’t matter which group one gets enrolled in. But, I would like to join Civil engineering - even if I don’t get a job I could at least become an entrepreneur,” he said.

Asked about the trend, Ganesan, a faculty in a private engineering college, said boys look at streams which would require physical and mental work, whereas girl students prefer to join only the course which needs less physical labour.

He seemed to be right as Gayathri, a student, said, “As information technology industry does not involve much physical strain, I would like to get into that as either a programmer or a tester, which would help me earn a lot rather than putting in hard labour in an automobile or the construction industry.”