As per the earlier schedule, the Higher Education Department has planned to start admissions in HEIs only after July 31. However, Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi said for the benefit of the students, the colleges could start the admission process one week ahead of the earlier plan.

"Online applications for Under Graduate (UG) courses will be made available online from Monday and students could download it", S Kothai, Principal, Ethiraj College For Women in the city, told DT NEXT.

However, she said that the government had not issued any orders when to begin classes for the students. "This year, we expect that the students will be enthusiastically participating in the admission process".

Madras Christian College principal Dr. Paul Wilson said that "we have already opened the admission portal for the student as per the protocol and we have receiving applications from the students". He said the final admission list will be published after July 29.

A senior official from the Higher Education Department pointed out that all the HEIs including Arts and Science institutions were instructed to make arrangements for the students for the online enrollment.

"However, the activities of the admissions to engineering colleges, conducted by the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE), will begin soon", he said adding "accordingly, a notification will be issued on the launch of new exclusive portal where the online application will be made available".

He said with CBSE Class XII results are expected to be released before July 31, those students will also join the admission fray shortly.

The official said at present, there are 13 state universities, ten government engineering colleges, three government-aided engineering institutions, 20 Anna University department and constituent colleges, and 554 self-financing engineering colleges providing education for several lakh students.

"At the same time, a total of 106 government Arts and Science colleges, 139 government aided Arts and Science Colleges and 571 self-financing Arts and Science Colleges, which were affiliated to various state universities", were functioning in the state", he added. The official said the budget allocation for Higher Education in 2020-2021 was Rs 5,052.84 crore.