Engineering enrolment nearing 2 lakh mark

CHENNAI: The enrolment of students seeking engineering seats in Tamil Nadu continues to swell with the total number of applications heading towards the 2 lakh mark.

The admissions to the engineering colleges started on June 20 and within 10 days, the student’s registration crossed more than one lakh, a senior official from the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) told DT Next on Thursday. “Within 20 days, the registration had crossed 1.5 lakh,” he added.

According to him, of the total 1,73,713 students, who have registered, till July 14, as many as 1,23,370 applicants have paid their fees. Stating that the last date for the registration to the engineering admissions will be on July 19, the official said that at least around 10,000 students from the Class 12 state board were expected to enroll.

“In addition, once the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) results were announced at least 30,000 students were expected to register for pursuing engineering courses across the state,” he said adding “similarly, the students, who have cleared CBSE Class 12 exams from other states, will also apply here.”

Claiming that this year, the DOTE has declared the ranking of the colleges, the official said that the number of students getting into engineering colleges will be increased by at least about 1.2 lakh compared to the previous year’s figure of a little over 80,000 candidates.

However, the DOTE official pointed out that of the total 1.70 applicants only 96,010 students have paid the fees and proceeded to upload their certificates. “This will also increase in a few days since many students might opt out of the private institutions”, he added.