TNEA 2026: Engineering counselling to begin July 13; Dharmapuri student tops rank list

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Higher Education Department has announced that engineering counselling for the 2026-27 academic year will begin on July 13, with general counselling scheduled to commence on July 20.

Higher Education Minister P Viswanathan on Wednesday (July 1) released the counselling schedule and the engineering rank list. Candidates can access their ranks through the official TNEA website: tneaonline.org.

Tamil Nadu has 2,65,594 engineering seats across 484 engineering colleges, with 19,657 additional seats added this year.

Key counselling session dates

According to the schedule, counselling for candidates under the 7.5 per cent reservation quota, differently abled candidates, children of ex-servicemen and sports quota applicants will be held from July 13 to July 14.

Counselling for government school students under the 7.5 per cent horizontal reservation in the general category will be conducted from July 15 to July 18.

General counselling for all other candidates will begin on July 20 and continue until August 30.

Over 2.36 lakh students assigned ranks

Speaking after releasing the rank list, the Minister said 2,45,235 students had registered and paid the application fee for engineering admissions, this year.

Of them, 2,36,017 students were assigned ranks, including 1,30,767 male students, 1,05,245 female students, and five transgender students.

Under the 7.5 per cent reservation for government school students, 50,494 candidates had applied. Based on records furnished by the School Education Department, 46,604 students were assigned ranks.

Sports, ex-servicemen and differently-abled quotas

The Minister said 7,981 students had applied under the sports quota this year. After verification of sports certificates, 3,210 students were assigned ranks.

Additionally, 1,176 students were assigned ranks under the wards of the ex-servicemen category, while 500 students received ranks under the differently-abled category.

Fifty-three students secure perfect cut-off

A total of 53 students secured the maximum cut-off score of 200 out of 200. Among them, 39 students studied under the Tamil Nadu State Board, while 14 students were from other education boards.

Candidates whose names do not appear in the rank list can approach the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) Facilitation Centres in their respective districts to rectify discrepancies until July 6, the minister said.

Dharmapuri student secures first rank

Akshitha from Dharmapuri secured the first rank in the State. Rohit Balan from Tirupur secured the second rank, while Venkatakrishnan from Namakkal secured the third rank.

Minister warns action against those collecting donations

Meanwhile, addressing reporters, Minister Viswanathan warned engineering colleges against collecting capitation fees or donations from students, stating that strict action would be taken against institutions found violating the rules.

He also alleged that during the previous regime, colleges were assigned targets for seats to be allotted through the office of the Higher Education Minister, leading to irregularities. He said such practices would not continue under the present government and assured that the Higher Education Department would function in a transparent manner.

(With inputs from Bureau)