Amid AU-govt row, DoTE to hold engg counselling this yr too

For two decades till 2018, Anna University was taking care of engineering admissions through single-window counselling. But it changed in 2019 after differences propped up between Anna University Vice Chancellor MK Surappa and the Higher Education Department over the reconstitution of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) committee. Since then, DoTE has been conducting counselling.

A senior DoTE official told DT Next that Anna University does not want the State government to play a major role in TNEA committee.

“The university had requested that it wanted to conduct counselling for students seeking engineering seats in Tamil Nadu in the coming academic year, but insisted on certain conditions, including making changes in TNEA committee,” said the official, adding that the directorate refused to heed to Anna University’s request.

Stating that DoTE had successfully organised counselling last academic year admitting more than 70,000 engineering students in more than 500 colleges, the official said, “We are equipped to conduct counselling this year, too.”

However, the massive exercise of conducting counselling for engineering admissions in the State had faced numerous hiccups, with several students complaining that the process was not as smooth as it was in the past.

On the complaints received last year during the counselling, the DoTE official said additional staff would be deployed this year. He added that online counselling software has been updated to meet the latest requirement. In addition, more student’s information centres would be established in all the districts this time around, he said. “All the centres will have experts to help the students seeking engineering seats to register online applications,” the official added.

During the upcoming session, more than one lakh students are expected to seek admissions at more than 500 government, government aided and private colleges across the State.