This year, about 1.10 lakh students had submitted online applications for various engineering courses. In the first round of counselling, 12,263 students were called while 22,903 candidates were invited for the second round.

Of these 35,166 candidates who were to attend the first two counselling rounds, only 20,925 turned up, officials said. The rest 14,241 applicants, about 41 per cent, did not attend. A senior DoTE official told DT Next that usually more than 75 per cent applicants attended the first and second round. “This year, however, only 59 per cent of them have taken part due to late admission process. The rest skipped counselling to join to private colleges that have completed the admission process and already started online classes,” said the official.

Even many among the students who secured provisional allocation might also drop out later because of not getting admission to their preferred course, he said. “The exact number of students will be clear only after the colleges opened,” the official said.

About 35,000 students were called for the third round of counselling that started from October 16, while a little over 40,500 were invited for the final round of counselling, which commenced on Tuesday. The provisional allotment for the last two rounds would be released on October 24 and October 28 respectively. If the trend in the first two rounds continue, only about 60,000 candidates among the 1.10 lakh are expected to join the courses, he said.