Online counselling from 2018: Education Secretary

Out of the 2,898 students called, 2,329 seats were allotted on Sunday. Computer Science was the second favourite with 434 seats allotted. Mechanical Engineering department saw 403 intakes. The top 10 rank holders were given the allotment order on the first day of the Academic Counselling by Higher Education Secretary Sunil Paliwal. As in the past, College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG) turned out to be the favourite among students this year too. The counselling was conducted in six sessions. 

First rank holder Sriram BB chose Computer Science and Engineering at CEG, while Hari Vishnu M, second rank holder, chose Electrical and Electronics Engineering at CEG and the third rank holder Saairam V too chose Computer Science and Engineering . 

Speaking to the media, Sunil Paliwal said that they are working towards introducing online counselling in which if someone doesn’t join, the seat will automatically go the person next in queue. Speaking about change in curriculum, he said, “The curriculum was last changed in 2013. So, the board discussed with various stakeholders to gauge their requirements and the Academic Council had approved the board’s suggestions. 

The new syllabus will be unveiled on July 27,” he said. With the likelihood of common entrance test for engineering students, he said that the Union HRD Minister’s latest statement has made it clear that NEET-like national-level examination for engineering courses is unlikely, at least in 2018. 

Clarifying about the increase in the number of vacant seats, he said that the national-level admission rate for engineering courses remain around 50 per cent. The admission rate in Andhra is a little higher, and in Tamil Nadu it is 54 per cent because the number of colleges is more in proportion to population. In Tamil Nadu, the number of engineering seats available is around 2,61,000.