Delay in admission hits engg aspirants

CHENNAI: Many deemed-to-be universities in Tamil Nadu have almost completed the admission process and have begun induction programme for students. However, more than one lakh candidates seeking engineering admission through the Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE) are still waiting, as counselling will be further delayed due to the postponement of rank list to September 25.

The initial part of the admission process like online registration, filling of applications, uploading original certificates and assigning random numbers had proceeded without glitches. In its tentative schedule, the directorate had announced that rank list would be published on September 7 and counselling would begin from September 17. However, the publication of merit list was postponed twice, first to September 17 and then to September 25.

With the DoTE not mentioning counselling schedule in its latest notification, the students who did not enrol in institutions under the deemed-to-be universities are forced to wait further.

A senior official told DT Next that publication of merit list was postponed to September 25 following requests to give a chance to students who could not upload original certificates till now. “The counselling schedule will be announced once the merit list is published,” he added.

The official also hinted that the admission process is expected to be delayed by a month more because of the delay in publishing the merit list. “As per the original schedule, counselling should have been completed by October 15. It is frustrating to wait for one more month,” said P Selvakumar, an aspirant from the city.

While Selvakumar could not afford the stiff fee charged by the private institutions, many of his classmates have joined there, where the induction programme have already begun.

E Varalakshmi, who is seeking admission in electrical engineering, said: “Any further extension would create fear among the students on the loss of academic days.”