Anna University

CHENNAI: With engineering admissions coming to a close today, only around 87,000 of the 1.75 lakh seats are likely to be filled by the end of the day. However, the number of takers is expected to be marginally higher than in 2016. At the end of Thursday's counselling, 83,562 seats were filled in Anna University and its affiliated colleges. With an average of 3,000 seats being filled every day, experts predict that about 87,000 seats will be filled by the end of the counselling process. “Another 1,000 to 1,500 seats will be added during the supplementary counselling," said education consultant, Moorthy Selvakumaran.In 2016, 87,199 out of the 1.85 lakh seats were filled. Anna University had cut its intake capacity in major courses this year, bringing the overall intake down by nearly 10,000 seats. The engineering admissions in 2017 may look marginally better than 2016, thanks to the uncertainty over the national eligibility-cum-entrance test (NEET). This rush led to an average of 4,500 students taking part in the counselling process in the first two weeks. Only in the last one week did the average number of students attending counselling come down to 4,000.

Data from the last five years shows that the demand for engineering has dropped 38%. In 2012, 1.27 lakh seats were filled and this marginally dropped to 1.24 lakh in 2013. A sharp fall in the numbers was witnessed in 2014 when, for the first time, the number of vacant seats touched the 1 lakh mark. The demand was worst hit last year when, for the first time, the number of seats filled went below the 1 lakh mark.

The drop in demand has been attributed to increasing awareness about the quality of engineering education and the opportunities opening up in other sectors. Courses like biotechnology saw almost all seats being filled. Core engineering courses like electronics, computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering saw nearly 50% of seats filled.

The worst hit course was civil engineering. While the intake capacity for the course was reduced by 7.5% this year, it saw only 28% of seats filled by the end of Wednesday . A professor of civil engineering recalled that such a trend was last witnessed eight years ago.“The market is dull because of demonetisation, problems in purchase of sand and shortage of water. Apart from the top 20 colleges, all others have struggled to fill their seats in civil engineering,“ said the professor.

