Private engineering institutions in the State have surrendered 18,614 management quota seats to the single window counselling. The information is as on Monday and has happened despite trimming of intake of students by the colleges. The counselling for general quota seats will begin from June 27. The single window counselling is conducted by the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions Committee. There are about 1.73 lakh government quota seats available under it as well.
Speaking about his, a source in the Directorate of Technical Education said, This year, private engineering colleges have surrendered 12,072 seats. Private minority institutions have surrendered 6,542 seats for allotment through counselling. The number will increase 2,000 more as a few more colleges are also in the process of surrendering their seats. Last year, more than 20,000 management quota seats were surrendered by private colleges. This year, the surrendered management quota seats will be slightly more.
65 per cent of the total seats in private engineering colleges must be surrendered to the government. The balance 35 per cent goes to the management quota which will be filled by the colleges themselves. On the other hand, 50 per cent of total seats are surrendered to the government in minority institutions.
According to the principal of a private engineering college, Declining interest in engineering courses among students is the main reason for surrendering of seats. Experts say, The demand for engineering seats in Tamil Nadu is around 1.5 lakh whereas the state has more than 2.5 lakh seats. So, private colleges are not able to fill their management quota seats. These colleges have to attract students from outside the State to fill vacant seats.