Students from underprivileged communities, who completed Class XII in vocational streams, are at a disadvantage when applying to Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) as the university does not follow community-based reservation for them.
Vocational stream students applying to TNAU are not eligible for the 7.5% horizontal reservation available for those who studied in government-run schools. This is in contrast to the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) in which vocational stream students are able to benefit from these reservation policies.
The TNAU reserves 5% of total seats in select courses in its constituent and affiliated colleges. The university was allowing vocational stream students only in its constituent colleges until recently. It was extended to privately-run affiliated colleges as well following a direction of the Madras High Court in a case filed by a student.
