Post four rounds of TNEA counselling, about 59% of the available seats have been filled 

Engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu have something to cheer about this year. After four rounds of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) counselling, 89,187 seats out of the total 1,51,871 available ones have been filled. That's almost 59 per cent against last year's 42 per cent.

After a gap of almost five years, private engineering colleges managed to fill over 50 per cent of seats, according to experts. According to available data, 1,63,154 seats were available last year, of which, 78,682 seats were filled (48 per cent).

This year, however, the figure is likely to go up more as supplementary counselling is yet to take place. "This year, we will be able to get at least 30 per cent more students than last year. In the supplementary counselling, we expect an enrolment of 12,000-15000 aspirants," said TD Eswaramoorthy, Joint Secretary of Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges in Tamil Nadu.

According to Eswaramoorthy, factors like a boom in the IT sector, fewer engineering colleges and 100 per cent pass marks in class XII exams have helped colleges better their admission figures. "Many engineering colleges reduced seats in their core subjects like mechanical and civil and opened new courses in Computer Science and IT-related courses. This helped them cater to the demand for Computer Science among aspirants," he added. He said most vacant seats are in the core subjects.

Educationists said seats would remain vacant in engineering colleges this year as well, but it will be way fewer than previous years. "Since 2016, we have been seeing engineering colleges struggling to fill their seats as the availability of seats was much higher than the demand. This year, however, the scenario is different. The craze of Computer Science Engineering is so much that aspirants are ready to pay capitation fee even in tier III colleges to ensure a seat in the subject," said career consultant, Jayaprakash Gandhi. "Last year, only 59 colleges managed to fill over 80 per cent of their seats, this year the figure is 113," he added.

TNEA extended the last date for registration for supplementary counselling to October 19. "Due to holidays, many might have faced difficulties in participating in the online registration. Keeping that in mind, the last date has been extended to October 19," said TNEA in charge T Purushothaman.