CHENNAI: Undergraduate admissions to Tamil Nadu’s government arts and science colleges have witnessed a slowdown this year, with nearly 30% of seats remaining vacant. Even as the admission process enters its final phase, this dip reflects a continuing shift in student preference towards engineering and other professional courses.

Data from the Directorate of Collegiate Education (DCE) shows that the 181 government arts and science colleges across the State have UG intake of over 1.28 lakh seats, including 1,708 newly added seats over the sanctioned strength of 1,26,959.

So far, only 89,933 students have secured admission, taking the overall intake to 69.9%. This leaves around 38,700 seats vacant, accounting for almost one-third of the available undergraduate seats.

Women continued to dominate enrolment in arts colleges. Of those admitted, 53,096 are women, 36,812 are men and 25 are trans persons.

A senior official from the higher education department said that the decline in admissions was primarily due to a fall in the number of applicants compared with previous years.

The trend is reflected in PG admissions as well. Against a sanctioned intake of 24,334 seats in 110 arts and science colleges, only 23,896 candidates have registered so far. Of them, just 16,905 have paid the application fee, indicating that a sizeable number of applicants are yet to confirm their applications.

Officials attributed the decline in registrations to changing student preferences, with more candidates opting for engineering and other specialised professional courses instead of conventional arts and science programmes.

Admissions are continuing in colleges where seats remain vacant and officials expect the intake to improve in the coming days. However, they admitted that a significant number of UG seats are likely to remain unfilled even after the process concludes.