Chennai, Aug 24 (IANS): After the completion of the second round of counselling for the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA), over one lakh seats remained vacant in the state.

However, the third round of counselling is underway which will continue till August 25.

Around 110 colleges of the total 443 were able to fill seats only in the single digits while 30 other colleges in the state were not able to fill any seats.

K.M. Muthuvel, an academic from Tiruchi and Director of the Centre for Policy and Development Studies told IANS that if only a handful of students are being filled in these colleges, it will be difficult to deliver quality education.

He said that of the total 1,62,392 engineering seats available in Tamil Nadu,17,769 seats were filled after the first round of counselling and 61,082 seats were filled after the second round of counselling thus leaving 1,01,310 seats vacant.

Around 93,000 students are expected to attend the third round of counselling.

Muthuvel said that as per the general trend for the past years, around 55,000 to 60,000 seats will be vacant this academic year.

Manonmani, an academic consultant told IANS that it may be recalled that in 2023, Anna University had to close down some colleges due to poor enrolment.

She said that the universities have to look into the problem of the shortage of students and derive a solution for the same.

In Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) 2023 more than 50,000 seats remained vacant.