:Government arts and science colleges are apparently able to fill vacant seats in UG programmes owing to the provision of quota conversion, more than a fortnight after the start of classes for the first-year students.The vacancies mostly arise after the student strength was increased by 20%, a policy adopted by the Higher Education Department to optimally utilise the available infrastructure to scale up gross enrolment ratio in higher education.Vacancies arise as the quota for admissions under BC and MBC categories do not get filled completely. As a chunk of students in these categories apparently choose to pursue engineering programmes, SC/ST students, even those with bare minimum pass marks, are given the opportunity, it is learnt.During the counselling process, a good number of SC/ST students secure admissions under the Open Category, sources added.The classes for first-year students commenced on July 1 in several government arts and science colleges.In the Government Arts College (Autonomous), Coimbatore, for instance, which is the second-most sought after institution by students across the State next only to the Presidency College, Chennai, the intake was increased to 2002 from 1,727 after the 20% increase in admissions was effected.Till date, 1,843 candidates have been admitted, and 159 seats remain to be filled.Call letters were given to the SC/ST students who had applied, but had not secured admission in any college so far, due to their low scores.They get streamlined into the Pudhumai Pen, Tamizh Puthalvan and other welfare schemes targeted at enrolment of students from poor and marginalised families. Published - July 21, 2026 08:54 pm IST