More engineering seats may go empty this year

CHENNAI: Compared to the previous academic year, more engineering seats are likely to remain unfilled, said Anna University Vice-Chancellor, Mannar P Jawahar.Speaking at a general inspection of the on-going engineering counselling there, he said while only 8,000 seats went abegging last year, this year the number could be as high as 25,000. He attributed this to the accreditation of 21 more colleges by the AICTE. This has created an availability of over 2 lakh engineering seats, while there have only been 1.48 lakh applications.The V-C also said there was the possibility of a separate round of counselling for those who had written their supplementary exams. He also announced that with the inclusion of 23 colleges that offer B Arch course, the total number seats available has risen to 1,000. As this is concurrent with the number of applicants, all of them will be admitted, he said.