58000 Seats vacant in anna university under engineering after first councelling

"Chennai: In spite of increase in number of students opting for engineering, Anna University's 58,000 seats are left vacant at the end of academic counseling session on Saturday.

This time, the number of vacant seats is 14,029 more in comparison to last year. In order to justify this lag, it is said that students are rushing to newer colleges and they prefer government seats than the management ones. Educational analyst say that an additional 21 new colleges offered 28, 460 seats but the students didn't prefer them. There are 540 engineering colleges in all.

The number of government seats in engineering colleges including vocational courses is 1,24,430 and that for engineering is 1,20,712. The total number of seats is around 1,82,459, with 58,029 seats left vacant. 

Rhymend Uthiaraj, secretary of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) said, "When more than 28,000 seats were added, vacancies were bound to increase. But the fact that people opting for engineering seats went up by 15,000 means the field is in demand." Having a look at the previous allotments, 1,10,000 seats were occupied out of 1,54,000. He also said that the colleges have given up more than 20,000 management seats to government. The number of vacant seats is likely to be estimated in a week.

The vocational courses counseling, supplementary exam students and for SC Arudhathiyar students will begin after academic counseling. "The special last leg of counselling ends on August 22. We expect around 2,500 seats to be allotted during that period," said Uthariaraj. 

Educationists say this year's counselling has given a clear message to upcoming colleges that unless they concentrate on quality of education and placements, their survival would be difficult. 

Analysts say that this year's counseling has made it evident that a college's survival totally depends on the quality of education they provide. Educational consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi said, "Students made thorough inquiries, ranging from faculty and facilities to placements and guidance."

Students preferred well known and established colleges in Chennai and Coimbatore. "While their preference to the older well-established colleges was understandable for placements, they continue to believe that city colleges will give them a better exposure, which is wrong," says Gandhi. He also said that there are colleges out of the city with excellent infrastructure and faculty."

courtesy :pardhaparsh