Engg students prefer pvt colleges

The six new government engineering colleges, which will start functioning from the current academic year, have failed to attract meritorious BE/BTech aspirants. Just as the six new Indian Institutes of Technology were not favoured by top ranking IIT-JEE candidates this year, during the ongoing single window counselling for engineering admissions in Tamil Nadu, there are virtually no takers for the new government colleges. The state government established engineering colleges in Villupuram, Tindivanam, Ariyalur, Thirukuvalai, Ramanathapuram and Panruti to provide facilities to the students to pursue professional education at an affordable cost. These institutions have been designated as Anna University (Chennai and Tiruchi) colleges. However, an analysis of the trends in the single window counselling during the past four days reveals that students preferred to join well-known self-financing colleges instead of the new government institutions. This, despite the fact that the annual fees in government colleges are only Rs 15,000 against Rs 40,000 charged by colleges which offer courses accredited by the National Board of Accreditation. Admission statistics pertaining to the electronics and communication engineering branch, which is the most popular course, revealed that after seats were filled up in College of Engineering (Guindy), Madras Institute of Technology, PSG College of Technology and Thiagarajar College of Engineering, students had opted for self-financing colleges.