The intake in engineering colleges in the State this academic year will be at least 16,000 seats lower than last year. This year, the State may have 2,65,724 seats as against 2,81,607 last year.
According to data on the website of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), 506 private colleges will admit students this academic year.
Anna University sources said that the number of seats could further come down after colleges completed the affiliation process. The last date for affiliation was extended to July 15 from June 30.
Affiliation fee
P. Selvaraj, secretary, Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges in Tamil Nadu, said many colleges were finding it difficult to pay the affiliation fee that the university had fixed.
“The government is against us collecting fees from students. Yet we have to pay salaries, and now the affiliation fee. Colleges are already struggling, and now the government is also planning to conduct exams,” he said.
The number of institutions had fallen as those that consistently admitted less than 30% students in the last five years were bound to be shut down as per the AICTE norms.
The AICTE data on the number of faculty members have thrown up a surprise. During the academic year 2019-20, there were 85,842 teachers in engineering colleges. This academic year, the number has grown to 88,213.
Anna University Vice-Chancellor M.K. Surappa said colleges that offered programmes approved by the AICTE had automatically been approved by the university. There were some courses that the AICTE did not approve, and the university had also rejected the requests for such courses.
The Directorate of Technical Education will conduct counselling for engineering admission after the Class 12 results are published.