1/3rd of engineering aspirants miss out certificate check in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Nearly one in every three engineering applicants did not turn up for certificate verification which was held from June 8 to 14 across the state. “Of 1,59,632 candidates who were called for certificate verification, only 1,09,850 candidates participated in the verification process. The remaining 49,781 candidates (31%) were absent,” sources said.

The absentees are ineligible to participate in the online engineering which is scheduled to start on first week of July. Totally, 1,59,632 candidates have registered their applications for online engineering counselling this year. The number of applicants was the highest in the last four years.

Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) committee has conducted the certificate verification for engineering aspirants at 42 TNEA Facilitation Centres. TNEA officials were surprised by the huge number of absentees at the certificate verification. 

“Usually, we will have around 30% absentees in the single window counselling. Since the engineering counselling was made online, many candidates might have chosen not to attend the certificate verification,” sources said.

“At present, the eligibility of the candidates is being scrutinized. The total eligible candidates for the engineering counselling could be even lesser,” sources added.

Last year of 1.31 lakh applicants, only 87,000 candidates have participated in the counselling and selected the engineering seats. This year, the number is expected to be around 90,000 to 1 lakh.

A private college principal said the interest in joining in engineering courses has come down compared to last year. “Even in good engineering colleges, the number of admissions in the management quota is lesser this year. Computer science and IT branches alone are filling up fast. The rest of branches have only a few takers,” he said.

Another principal attributed the lack of interest in joining engineering courses to the closure of industrial establishments in the state. “The state government has officially announced that 50,000 micro, small and medium enterprises were closed down. It has adversely affected the interest in engineering courses,” he said. Career consultant Jayaprakash A.Gandhi said there could be many reasons for the absence. 

“The private engineering colleges are doing door to door canvass to admit students. Some students might have opted for arts and science courses and others might have joined in the management quota," he said. The rank list for online engineering counselling will be released on June 28.