Private engineering colleges see fewer enquiries

In the past, many parents and students visited private engineering colleges during Christmas vacation to enquire about seats, but now as the half yearly exams have been postponed to January 11 and would go on till the end of this month, not many parents have approached these colleges to enquire about a seat. 

This has hampered the management’s planning process as they usually apply to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) during December-January for increase in intake of seats for courses based on the enquiries. They are in a fix as colleges have received fewer enquiries, which prevents them from taking a final call. 

When asked about the trend, one of the administrators of a private engineering college in the outskirts of the city said that several private engineering colleges in the flood affected districts of Chennai and its adjacent areas have been closed for over a month as they were either submerged or Class XII students were affected by the floods. “We hope that the situation improves by January. 

With more students getting recruited from private engineering colleges this year, we expect many to join engineering streams in the next academic year,” another administrator said. Education consultant Jayaprakash A. Gandhi, says that as students and their parents were from the middle class families in Chennai and have suffered huge damages due to flood, they might not be ready to think about admission through management quota.

 “Students also want to wait and watch for the Class 12 board examination results. If the exams were easy, they stand a better chance to get a seat in government quota itself,” he said.