More than 68,000 students secured tentative allotment of seats in the third round of the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) 2026 counselling process on Friday (August 21, 2026).

The students have been instructed to confirm their seats using the proper confirmation option by 5 p.m. on Saturday (August 22). Confirmation is mandatory, and if students fail to confirm their tentative allotment, it could lead to the cancellation of the allotment, according to a release from the TNEA committee.

From among a total of 1,02,719 eligible candidates for the third round of TNEA counselling, as many as 68,640 were given tentative allotments. There were a total of 1,06,583 engineering seats available to fill for this round.

In the past two rounds, the TNEA authorities had distributed a total of 88,930 provisional allotments to students belonging to both general category and the 7.5% horizontal reservation (government school students) category. While the number of students who completed the admission process is not immediately available, past experience indicates that a few thousand students usually drop out of the admission process.

Last year, there were more than 30,000 vacant engineering seats in the State after the admission process was completed, despite an enrolment rate of over 80%. In previous years, the number of vacancies was closer to 50,000.

Published - August 21, 2026 12:47 pm IST