No change in BE counselling schedule, says Anna Univ V-C

[Kalyan]

No change in BE counselling schedule, says Anna Univ V-C

Chennai: Single-window counselling for admission to undergraduate engineering degree programmes will commence in Tamil Nadu as scheduled on July 10 although the first phase of counselling for admission into medical colleges will end only on July 17.

    Traditionally, counselling for BE/BTech programmes is held after the medical admissions as the latter requires a higher cut-off mark due to intense competition. Students who miss out on a MBBS seat try their luck in engineering colleges.

    This year, the schedule for medical admissions was announced only on Saturday, three days after higher education minister K Ponmudy unveiled a tentative schedule for the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA), causing anxiety to a section of aspirants.

    However, Anna University (Chennai) vice chancellor P Mannar Jawahar on Sunday said that there will be no change in the schedule for counselling for engineering degree courses.

    "By July 10 when the BE/BTech counselling for academic stream candidates would begin, the cut-off mark for medical admissions, which commences on July 6, would be around 197 or so. Whereas, the cut-off mark on the first day of engineering counselling will be 200. Therefore, there will be no duplication of students with the same cut-off mark in both streams and the counselling process will go on smoothly," he explained.

    In fact, top officials of the higher education department had consulted their counterparts in the health ministry before releasing the tentative schedule for TNEA to avoid a clash of dates. "We were aware of the MBBS counselling schedule. It is just that the health minister announced the medical counselling schedule after a delay," said an official.

    Meanwhile, at the end of the deadline for submitting filledin application forms for BE/BTech admissions on Sunday, over 1.32 lakh forms were received at the Anna University (Chennai), the nodal agency for conducting the TNEA.

    As many as 1,58,136 aspirants had purchased the application forms this year, which is 19,281 more than the previous year. While on the opening day on May 6, as many as 64,245 forms were sold, only 287 aspirants purchased the forms on the concluding day on May 30.

    Single-window counselling for engineering courses to start on July 10

    Over 1.32 lakh application forms received by Anna University (Chennai) at the end of deadline on Sunday
    1,58,136 aspirants had purchased the application forms this year — 19,281 more than previous year