Candidates will get 1 week to pay fees after engineering seat allocation

Move aimed at preventing vacancies in Anna University after counselling

The Higher Education Department has taken steps to prevent undergraduate engineering seats from going waste in Anna University.

Minister K. Ponmudi announced the time-line for counselling and seat allotment on Wednesday and said admission to engineering programmes would be delayed till the release of NEET results to prevent vacancies in Anna University.

Students with high scores tend to block seats until they get admitted to a college of their choice. In the past several years, engineering counselling had been held ahead of medical counselling. Especially since the introduction of NEET, a host of legal cases delayed medical counselling. Many students would take a seat in engineering and then move out when counselling begins for medical colleges.

As a result, at least 600 seats remained vacant in Anna University’s four departments. Mr. Ponmudi said last year 631 seats remained vacant. In 2020, as many as 750 seats remained unfilled.

One week to pay fees

The department has hence decided to give candidates seven working days to pay fees once they have been allotted a seat. “If they fail to pay the tuition fee, the seat would be allotted to the next candidate who is on the waiting list,” the Minister informed.

Candidates who are allotted seats during the single window counselling through Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions Committee will get seven working days to pay fees and confirm their seats.