The Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) Committee 2023 is likely to begin its single-window counselling from the second week of July.
Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy, who released the merit list on June 26, 2023, said it was decided that the engineering counselling would be delayed until the first round of medical counselling was held. Usually, counselling for engineering seats is held from July 1. Earlier this year, the Minister had announced that counselling would be held only in August.
Many students who take science stream in Class XII opt for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), the qualifier for MBBS education in the country.
Ever since NEET was made mandatory, engineering admission had taken a hit as the toppers qualify for MBBS as well. Every year, hundreds of seats stayed vacant in Anna University’s four campuses and some of the top-ranked colleges in the State. Hence, the decision was taken to delay the admission process until the first round of counselling for MBBS was conducted.
Higher education officials said the Health Department was expected to conduct the first round of counselling by the second week of July.
Perfect scores
A total of 102 students, including one from a government school, have scored 200/200 in the cut-off required for engineering counselling. The higher education officials expect that at least 32 students among them are eligible to qualify for MBBS if they had taken NEET.
The first three ranks have gone to girls in the general category: Nethra B. from Thoothukudi; Harinika M. from Dharmapuri; and Roshini Banu S. from Melavaladi. Mahalakshmi S., a student from Dharmapuri, has topped among government school students under the 7.5% provisional reservation category. In the vocational stream, Aathithya N.M. has been ranked first with a cut-off of 199.
For the academic year 2023-24, a total of 2,29,175 applications were received and certificate verification was done for 1,87,847 candidates who paid the counselling fee. However, only 1,78,959 applications were found eligible. The Minister said this year, 18,767 more applicants had applied when compared to last year.
Of the 31,445 government school students who applied, 28,425 have been found eligible. Among them, 27,866 are under the general stream and 559 have applied under the vocational category. “This is a success for Pudhumai Penn scheme launched by the Chief Minister,” Mr. Ponmudy said.
According to him, 446 colleges will participate in the counselling. The number of seats will be made available only by the end of the month, he added.
