| Monday, August 27, 2007
Vacancies, still a grim reality
Mere addition of seats to the single window pool has not met
the need of engineering aspirants. Lack of quality education
has forced many of them not to opt for what is on offer
Promises of an engineering seat for every applicant apart, it
looks as if a minimum of 10,000 engineering seats are likely
to remain vacant when counselling for admissions under the single
window system close in the first week of September.
The vacant seats indicate a clear mismatch between demand and
supply, educationists say, for despite more students opting
for engineering education this year, vacancies would still be
a reality, mostly because the quantity of seats on offer does
not correlate with the quality of education, causing many students
to opt out.
As on last Friday, out of the 85,000 candidates who had applied,
as many as 16,670 had absented themselves from counselling.
“More colleges offering more seats to the single window
system does not necessarily mean the system has been fine-tuned
to meet the demand. The reason why so many seats remain vacant
is because many colleges voluntarily give up only those seats
which they could not have filled otherwise. Unless the Government
makes it clear that vacant seats will not go back to the management
pool, the story will continue,” a former director of engineering
admissions said.
The absenteeism seems to have peaked during the second phase
of counselling when, Anna University authorities say, the daily
absentee rate was nearly 40 per cent. On last Wednesday alone,
46 per cent of those called for counselling had stayed away.
“Students are looking at institutions rather than courses.
This explains why colleges in urban agglomerations such as Chennai
and Coimbatore filled up seats at an extraordinary pace,”
says Jayaprakash Gandhi, an education consultant.
Branches in which all seats have been filled up are agriculture
and irrigation engineering, apparel technology, electrochemical
technology, ceramic technology, electrical and electronics engineering
(sandwich course), geoinformatics, industrial biotechnology,
industrial engineering, leather technology, materials science,
mining, manufacturing, mechanical (sandwich course), metallurgical,
petrochemical technology, petroleum refining and petrochemical
technology, production engineering (sandwich course) and printing
technology.
Least preferred
Among the least preferred are fashion technology, biotechnology,
textile technology, food technology, aeronautical engineering,
biomedical engineering and polymer technology.
Among circuit branch courses, electrical and electronics engineering
was the least preferred with not many takers in 69 colleges.
Out of a total of 9,625 EEE seats available, only 4,751 were
filled as on Tuesday last.
Predictably, apart from the four Anna University constituent
colleges, other top tier colleges have all seats filled:
AC College of Technology, Karaikudi; Coimbatore Institute of
Technology, Government Engineering Colleges in Bargur, Salem
and Tirunelveli; Government College of Technology and PSG College
of Technology in Coimbatore; Thiagarajar College of Engineering
in Madurai, and SSN College of Engineering in Chennai. The last
is the only self-financing college that has made the grade.
A total of 44 colleges had filled more than 90 per cent seats,
including Velammal Engineering College in Madurai, a new entrant.
Out of the 274 colleges in the fray, 34 colleges have filled
less than 15 per cent seats. Of these, 19 colleges have had
less than 10 seats filled.
When counselling closes, it is expected that several thousands
of seats in the reserved categories, especially SC and ST, will
still remain vacant.
“The turnout of SC/ST candidates has been quite low, compared
to the availability of seats in thousands. Surprisingly, some
of those who turned up for counselling ended up choosing nothing,
compounding the problem,” an Anna University official
said.
Courtesy: The Hindu - Education Plus
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