Single Window System of Admissions

Prior to 1984-1985, admission to professional colleges was done based on the academic marks plus the marks in the interview. The interview was replaced by an entrance test conducted by the Anna University for admission to the professional colleges from the year 1984-1985.

Anna University has been conducting the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination (TNPCEE) for more than a decade. Through this Single-Window System, the admission procedure of students is carried out to all the engineering colleges in the State at the College of Engineering, Guindy Campus.

Around 70,000 students apply every year for admission to the B.E./B.Tech./B.Arch. at the early period. Online admission was done for about 50,000 of them, based on merit-ranking. This number stood at about 1 lakh in 2007-2008, about 1.27 lakhs in 2008-2009 and about 1.50 lakhs in 2009-2010.

Common Entrance Test (CET) was first introduced in 1984 replacing the old system of personal interview. The then Vice-Chancellor of Anna University, Prof. Dr. V. C. Kulandaiswamy, designed and developed the TNPCEE (Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examinations) and helped perfect its structure. Except during, when the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University was given the mantle, the conduct of CET was always vested with Anna University.

This procedure of admitting the students to the professional colleges based on the academic marks plus the marks obtained in the entrance tests was followed up to 1996-1997 and thereafter as a further expansion of the scheme; the Government introduced the Single Window System of admission from the year 1997-1998.

NEW SYSTEM

During the tenure of Prof. Dr. M. Anandakrishnan as Vice-Chancellor, the Single Window System of Admissions was introduced in 1997 and is being continued into its present form. This concept of the Single Window System of Admissions (SWS) was the brain child of Prof. Dr. M. Anandakrishnan.

Before 1995, the CET was held after the results of the Plus-Two exams were declared, in the June/July. Though this meant that those who scored very low marks in the Board examination could stay out of CET, it also meant that the admission process itself would start very late and continue even until December. Hence, those who were uncertain of a professional courses seat would also enroll for non-professional courses. With the new system in place since 1995, the TNPCEE is held in April.

During 1994, only 50,000 students wrote the TNPCEE and the number doubled after the new system was introduced in 1995, a year which is significant in CET history. That was the year when questions were jumbled to avoid malpractices and an undisclosed number of jumbled versions of question papers were prepared and used, without informing the candidate which version he/she was answering. The number of Centres was increased from seven to more than 20.

INSTRUCTIONS

Elaborate instruction booklets were prepared in Tamil and English, and the question paper pattern was completely revised, with no question from the books repeated verbatim. Optical mark readable (OMR) answer sheets were used. These remain unchanged even to this date.

SPECIAL QUOTA

The AIEEE question papers follow the CBSE syllabus of standards XI and XII and no weightage is given for marks obtained in the qualifying examination. Also, NRI students are not required to take the TNPCEEE for engineering courses, but must do so for MBBS/BDS/B.Sc (Nursing) courses. Till 2001, the physically handicapped quota was meant for three types of impairments: orthopedically handicapped, hearing impaired and visually impaired, and three percent of seats were reserved for PH candidates.

Till 2002 i.e. prior to the Judgment in T. M. A. Pai case, admission to Government quota seats was being done through Single Window System of Counseling System of the State Government and students’ rank list was prepared with the cut-off marks based on the +2 marks and the marks in the entrance test. The management quota seats were, however, being filled up by the management themselves for which no entrance test was conducted.

After the 11 Judges Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India delivered its Judgment in T. M. A. Pai case, the same method of making admission to Government quota seats by combining the marks obtained by the students in +2 examinations and entrance test through Single Window Counseling is being continued without any change. However, in respect of admissions under management quota, the managements of self-financing professional colleges were instructed to make admissions in a fair and transparent manner. Following these instructions, during the year 2003-04, the managements admitted the students by conducting entrance tests by themselves.

Due to difficulties in determining those under 'one eyed' (visually impaired) category, this was excluded from the PH quota by a 2001 G.O. which also removed the upper limit (70 decibels) on hearing capacity for eligibility of the hearing impaired and creation of separate rosters for the orthopedically handicapped and the hearing impaired categories.

It had been a fairly smooth sailing for the CET until last year when the State Government decided to do away with it on the grounds that it did not provide educational equity to rural students. Judicial appeals by students set the status quo for last year and the issue had been on the simmer ever since then.

TASKS EXECUTED AS A FIRST NOMINEE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF TAMILNADU

The Government of Tamil Nadu through the Director of Technical Education, nominated Prof.Dr.A.Ebenezer Jeyakumar as Government nominee for the Single Window System of Admissions, conducted by the Anna University in 1997, when it was introduced for the first time in this state of Tamil Nadu.
In the capacity of nominee of the Government of Tamil Nadu, Prof.Dr.A.Ebenezer Jeyakumar was solely responsible for the following :
Allocation of seats in the respective communities as per the sanctioned intake to each institution, by AICTE norms and also considering the minority/non-minority status of the institutions.
Conduct of the admission process and to act immediately upon receipt of judgments from the Courts regarding institutions category (Self-Financing, Linguistic minority and Religious minority).

INTRODUCTION OF SINGLE WINDOW SYSTEM ADMISSIONS FOR DIPLOMA ADMISSIONS (1998)

Prof.Dr.A.Ebenezer Jeyakumar was nominated to conduct the Single Window System (SWS) for Admissions of Diploma Courses for the FIRST TIME in the state of Tamil Nadu. He implemented the Single Window System concept adopted for B.E./B.Tech./B.Arch. admissions by Anna University, Chennai for the FIRST TIME in 1997 for which he was nominee of the Government of Tamil Nadu.
As a coordinator of Single Window System of Admissions to all Polytechnic Colleges in Tamil Nadu, he was fully responsible for the entire process of admissions in the year 1998 for the FIRST time in Tamil Nadu for all the Government, Government Aided and Self financing Polytechnic colleges in the state of Tamil Nadu.

CO-ORDINATOR IN THE DECENTRALIZED COUNSELING AT COIMBATORE IN 2002

The Single Window based Admissions were decentralized in 2002 and Coimbatore, Madurai and Trichy, in addition to Chennai, started conducting B.E./B.Tech. Counseling, to enable students and parents to avoid the inconvenience and additional expenses of travelling to Chennai.

In this period, Prof. Dr. A. Ebenezer Jeyakumar took over the reins at Coimbatore and successfully implemented and completed the task as a Co-ordinator of the FIRST Decentralized Counseling of SWS Admissions at Coimbatore for the academic year 2002-2003.

SECRETARY: TAMIL NADU MBA/MCA AND M.E./M.TECH. ADMISSIONS 2005

Prof. Dr. A. Ebenezer Jeyakumar was appointed by the Government of Tamilnadu and Directorate of Technical Education, as a Secretary, Tamil Nadu MBA/MCA and M.E./M.Tech. Admissions- 2005 based on the TANCET.
In his capacity as a Secretary, he was completely responsible for the Admission of the above courses through Centralized Counseling organized at Government College of Technology, Coimbatore in July /August 2005 for all the Government, Government Aided, Self financing Engineering and Arts & Science Colleges in the State of Tamil Nadu.