Engineering admissions in Tamil Nadu colleges to go ahead as scheduled despite NEET re-exam

Chennai: With more than two lakh students up for engineering courses this year, the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) committee will go ahead as per schedule despite the NEET re-exam.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) cancelled the NEET-UG exam conducted on May 3 following a question paper leak. It has set the re-exam for June 21. This is set to delay admissions to medical courses as well as other professional courses across the country.

“With two days to go, TNEA has received around 2.2 lakh applications, which is around the same number we got last year. The engineering rank list will be released as scheduled on June 29. Counselling also is likely to be conducted as it was last year, as the NEET re-exam results are expected to be released before the start of the counselling,” a TNEA official told TOI. The last date to apply for engineering counselling is June 2.

Last year, engineering counselling for special categories began on July 7, and general counselling was conducted from July 14 to Aug 19.

To avoid vacancies post-medical counselling, state govt has allowed Anna University to fil 15% more seats than it did last year. “With these additional seats, the chances of seats going vacant in top govt colleges are less,” the official added.

Career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi said more students from Tamil Nadu have applied for CBSE Class XII revaluation as they got lower scores than expected in physics and maths.

“Both state board and CBSE students will have their marks changed after revaluation this year. Holding the engineering counselling after the release of the medical rank list will help students to make their decisions on which stream they would like to join,” he said. “Further, we expect that more toppers will opt for core engineering branches this year due to more opportunities. Mechanical, electrical and electronics engineering courses will likely be more popular this year,” he added.

In the past few years, computer science and IT remained the most preferred courses along with artificial intelligence and data science. Last year, many students opted for electronics and communication courses too.