44 per cent B.E. seats lie vacant in 2014-15
Only 1,67,082 seats got filled (government quota and management quota) leaving 1,26,640 vacant
By : n. arun kumar
Update: 2015-04-24 06:03 GMT
Chennai: With the interest to join arts and science colleges growing among students in the state, about 44 per cent (1,26,640) of seats in engineering colleges across the state went vacant this academic year (2014-2015). Data released by the department of technical education revealed that 576 engineering colleges in the state had a sanctioned intake of 2,93,722 of which 1,67,082 seats were filled (government and management quotas) leaving 1,26,640 vacant.
Anna University and constituent colleges had 1,622 seats unfilled in the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions; besides 1,24,597 seats went abegging in private engineering colleges.Asked about the trend, former Anna University vice-chancellor Prof E. Balagurusamy said, that there exists a mismatch between the number of seats and students who aspire to study engineering in the state.
“We have more seats than students in the state and also numerous students prefer to join arts & science courses like B.Sc and B.Com as several companies now recruit these students. Private engineering colleges are also not able to maintain good quality, which results in engineering graduates going unemployed,” he said.
The former vice-chancellor also urged state government to identify bad performing private engineering colleges and close them in the interests of students and society.Pointing out that more seats would go vacant in the ensuing academic year, eminent academician and career counsellor Jayaprakash A. Gandhi asked how colleges could offer quality education to students when several private engineering colleges paid meagre salaries to faculty. It may be noted that 1,05,042 seats went vacant in the last academic year.