Postponed Neet may leave many TN engg seats vacant

Postponed Neet may leave many TN engg seats vacant

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  05.07.2020

If engineering admissions in TN are to be conducted before Neet and JEE, it would leave hundreds of BE/ BTech seats vacant in top engineering colleges in 2020-21. Last year, on Anna University’s four campuses, more than 400 seats fell vacant due to students leaving their BE/BTech seats to join medical colleges. Experts warn that the new schedule may further increase such vacant seats.

According to the revised schedule released by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the first round of counselling should be conducted before August 30 and classes should commence for first year studentson September 15. But, the Union HRD ministry has postponed National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet) and Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) to September in view of Covid-19.

“The AICTE should conduct a meeting with all the state health secretaries before finalising the admission dates. Most of the colleges are functioning as quarantine centres. When cases are increasing, what is the hurry in opening the colleges," asks career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi, adding that the one week delay in conducting medical counselling last year had a big impact on Anna University as more than 400 students dropped out to join MBBS. “The present schedule will make it difficult for students to make decisions. The HRD ministry should make a collective decision withNTA,AICTE andstate governments,” he said.

Vice-chancellor of the university M K Surappa said, “If JEE and Neet exams shift to September and engineering admissions are conducted in August, then it will deal a big blow. More students will go to NITs, IITs and medical colleges after joining engineering colleges.”

The number of students migrating from engineering colleges to medical colleges increased after the Neet based admissions due to uncertainty in getting the medical admissions. SASTRA University vice-chancellor S Vaidhyasubramaniam asked the AICTE to allow 10% more students than the sanctioned strength. “If engineering admissions were conducted before IIT counselling, then more students will drop out from private institutions and deemed universities. The 10% extra seats would help top colleges and deemed universities to manage the dropouts,” he said.

R M Kishore, vice-chairman of RMK Engineering College, said the new admission schedule will lead to big loss to top colleges. “Last year we had 60-70 students dropping out of our college to join medical colleges. If more students leave this year it would hurt the colleges which are under severe financial stress. We are planning to approach AICTE to revise the admission schedule,” he said.