43,132 Students Skip Second Round of Tamil Nadu Engineering Counselling

Nearly 46% of candidates skipped the second round of general counselling for engineering admissions in Chennai and across Tamil Nadu this year. Out of 93,116 students invited to participate in the second round, as many as 43,132 candidates stayed away from the process.

Education experts attributed the high absence rate to students securing seats under the management quota for their preferred courses, as well as deemed universities completing their admission procedures before the state engineering counselling commenced.

Following the first two rounds of counselling, the total number of seats filled has decreased by 5,236 compared to the same stage last year. Career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi noted that students who did not get their preferred courses or institutions opted not to accept their allotments, while a larger share of candidates showed a preference for urban campuses.

The reduced turnout directly impacted admissions across colleges in the state. According to Gandhi, as many as 23 colleges failed to attract even a single student, while 167 engineering colleges filled less than 10% of their available seats after two rounds. Additionally, the count of institutions managing to fill more than 50% of their total intake fell from 147 last year to 111 this year.

However, officials from Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) stated that total provisional allotments across general counselling and the 7.5% special reservation category reached 59,951 seats.

T Purushothaman, secretary of TNEA, stated that the current admission trend remains similar to that of the previous year. He added that the authorities expect to fill 1.3 lakh engineering seats upon the conclusion of the third counselling round.