General counselling for engineering from July 9

The Hindu SWEATING IT OUT: Students and parents queuing up to buy application forms for admission to engineering colleges at Anna University on Friday. Photo: S.S. Kumar

 General counselling for admission to engineering colleges in the State through the single window system will begin on July 9.

Nearly 86,000 applications were sold on day one of the sale of forms for admissions to 1.6 lakh seats in about 525 colleges in the State, revealing the continuing popularity of engineering education.

Giving away applications to students on Friday, Anna University Vice-Chancellor P. Mannar Jawahar said that the general counselling for Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA 2012) would begin on July 9 and last till August 12. Random numbers would be assigned on June 20 and rank list published on June 24.

Admissions under the sports quota would be on July 1. Phase1 of vocational counselling would be between July 3 and 7. For the differently abled, the counselling would be on July 8.

As many as 85,986 students bought the applications on day one, said Prof. Rhymend Uthariaraj, Secretary, TNEA 2012. Nearly 20,000 applications, including 16,300 at Anna University, were sold in the city.

The counselling is for admission to Anna university departments, university colleges, government and aided engineering colleges and for government quota seats in self-financing engineering colleges under the unified single window system of admission.

“Many colleges have applied for new courses and more seats in the existing courses. Their applications are with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Besides, several trusts have applied to AICTE for approval to start new colleges,” Mr. Jawahar said expecting more seats to be added this year.

Last year, over 45,000 seats fell vacant in engineering colleges.