This year, 1.108 lakh students had enrolled online through the Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE), and three rounds of counselling have been completed so far. However, of the total 70,300 students who were to attend till the third round, only 41,924 applicants – 59.6 per cent – took part in the counselling and got provisional allotment. The remaining 28,700 persons opted out of counselling.

A senior official from DoTE said the 40 per cent absenteeism is expected to continue in the fourth and last round, which would mean only about 66,000 students would join engineering colleges against the capacity of 1.57 lakh seats that are offered by more than 400 institutions across the State. Usually, more than 65 per cent candidates would attend the first three rounds of counselling. The delay in commencing admission process seems to have brought down the number of attendees this year, as many of the students have joined private colleges, which have already completed admission and even started online classes.

About 45,500 students have been invited for the final round of counselling that commenced on October 20 and provisional allotment for them would be released on October 28.