Engineering counselling will be delayed: Education minister

Chennai: In a bid to reduce the number of vacant seats at top engineering institutions, the state government has decided to conduct online engineering counselling after the completion of MBBS counselling and it is likely to begin in the second week of July. "We have decided to approach the Supreme Court to seek permission to extend the deadline for conducting engineering counselling beyond July 31," higher education minister K.P. Anbalagan told reporters here.

"The first phase MBBS/BDS counselling is scheduled to be conducted from July 1 to 10. Engineering counselling will start after medical counselling.  We need at least 30 to 35 days to conduct the online counselling," the minister explained.The online engineering counselling is scheduled to be conducted in five rounds.As per the Supreme Court's order, the counselling process should end before July and the classes have to commence from August 1.

So, the government has decided to approach the court for getting relaxation. "The engineering counsselling will begin in the second of July," officials said.

Last year, due to the confusion over Neet, the MBBS counselling was conducted in the last week of August. So, the TNEA  conducted engineering counselling ahead of MBBS counselling.Several top rankers who chose College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras Institute of Technology in Chromepet and A.C. Tech in Guindy left their seats to join MBBS and other courses. “As many as 400 seats were vacant in Anna University alone. Other top engineering colleges also had huge vacancies,”sources said.

The dates for B.Arch counselling will be finalised on July 2 and there are around 3000 seats available this year. The minister said the fees for engineering courses in private engineering colleges are unchanged this year. The fee for accredited courses will be '55,000 and non-accredited '.50,000. For management quota, the fee for accredited courses is'87,000 and non-accredited courses '85,000.