| CHENNAI: As society becomes less rigid, gender-specific institutions are seeing a setback, particularly in higher education.
Take, for instance, the enrolment rate in women's engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu. Of the nearly 38,000 women who have sought admission to engineering colleges through the single window counseling this year, very few have sought enrolment in women-only colleges.
Fifteen of the 18 women's engineering colleges in the state have more than 100 seats vacant each, with just two days to go for the end of the general academic counseling process. One college, with a seat intake that can only be termed ambitious at a time when even co-educational engineering institutions with good brand value are not seeing good enrolments, has more than 450 seats vacant. Those in the know said the institutions have been able to secure very few seats, usually in the single digit. |