Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Chennai: More than 400 self-financing engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu have sought an increase in intake of students in select branches of study in BE/BTech or permission to launch new courses and surrendering seats in unpopular branches.

Disclosing this on Tuesday, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) southern region chairman P Mannar Jawahar said a decision on sanctioning the intake and starting of new courses or otherwise would be communicated to colleges in a couple of days. "Several colleges have applied for increasing the sanctioned strength of students in popular branches like Electronics and Communication Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering. Some institutions are seeking to double the intake in the ECE branch from 60 to 120," he said.

In contrast, institutions were either seeking a closure of Information Technology (IT) branch or reducing intake of students as thousands of seats in the branch had gone vacant last year due to the slowdown in the software industry.

A supplementary single window counselling session would be held to fill up these additional seats after the end of the main counselling in mid-August.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions secretary V Rhymend Uthariaraj cautioned students and parents not to take strangers into confidence at the counselling venue or display hall. It is learnt that staff of some colleges are on the prowl to hoodwink aspirants into joining their institutions. A lady of a college in Erode was caught accompanying two students on Monday to the counselling hall.

Medical Electronics, Textile Chemistry and Fashion Technology courses were least preferred by students. Jawahar said 46,000 aspirants will be called for the third phase counselling next month.