TNEA 2026: Dates, Registration, Eligibility, Counselling Process, Selection Criteria, Cutoff

Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) is a state-level counselling for admission to  BE/BTech, BE (Sandwich) and MTech Computer Science and Engineering (Integrated) courses offered by the Government and Government Aided Engineering Colleges, University Departments and Constituent Colleges of Anna University, and Annamalai University. The Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE), Chennai, conducts online TNEA counselling, which is a common admission process to the abovementioned courses and institutes. Seats in the counselling are allotted based on 10+2 marks of the candidates.

The TNEA admission process includes the following steps:

1. Registration on the official website tneaonline.org
2. Online Application Filling and Certificate Uploading
3. Allotment of Random Numbers
4. Online Certificate verification by TFC
5. Publication of Rank List & Grievance Redressal
6. Online counselling - Choice filling, seat allotment, seat confirmation and reporting at allotted college

TNEA Admission Process 2026

Candidates can check below the highlights of the TNEA counselling 2026:

Candidates can check the TNEA counselling eligibility criteria 2026 given below.

Nationality: Only Indian nationals can apply for TNEA counselling 2026.

Nativity: Candidates of the following nativity can apply for TNEA counselling 2026:

Tamil Native Candidates

Candidates have to prove their Tamil nativity. In this regard, the following will be applicable - 

1. Tamil Nadu candidates who have passed VIII, IX, X, XI and XII standards from schools situated in Tamil Nadu are eligible to apply. They need not produce a Nativity Certificate for verification.
2. Tamil Nadu native candidates who have passed any of the VIII, IX, X, XI and XII Std. or their equivalent examination from schools situated outside Tamil Nadu can also apply. They should produce an Original Nativity Certificate only in electronic form/digitally signed e-Certificate.
3. Sons and daughters of All India Service Tamil Nadu cadre officers are eligible to apply. A Self-declaration from the parent in this regard is to be produced.

Non-Tamil Candidates

1. Children of Central Government Employees may also apply for admission, irrespective of their native, provided their parents or guardians (only if both parents are not alive) have been serving in Tamil Nadu continuously for the past FIVE YEARS at the time of submission of application. This should be supported by producing a certificate from the employer of the parent or guardian, to that effect.
2. Children of employees in the Public Sector or Government recognised Institutions who at the time of submission of application for admission employed in Tamil Nadu continuously for the past five years may also apply irrespective of their domicile. A certificate from the employer stating that the person is a Permanent Employee of the Firm or Institution concerned with evidence like Income Tax return, PF Slips, etc. and has been working in Tamil Nadu continuously for the past FIVE YEARS has to be produced.
3. Other State candidates who have studied VIII, IX, X, XI and XII Std. in Tamil Nadu are eligible to apply. They need not produce a Nativity Certificate.

Srilankan Tamil Refugee

Candidates who are Srilankan Tamil refugees studying in Tamil Nadu will be considered under open competition. They have to produce the following certificates:

• Identification certificate from the Head Quarters Tahsildar.
• Those who have not registered in the refugee camp should produce their original passport, visa and letter registered with the Police Station

Overseas Citizen of India Candidates

Candidates of Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders/Persons of Indian Origin(PIO) cardholders and Native of Tamil Nadu are permitted to participate in the Tamilnadu Engineering Counselling under the “Open Category”. This will not apply to the candidates of overseas citizen of India (OCI) cardholders/Persons of Indian Origin(PIO) cardholders who are born in a foreign country after 04.03.2021.

Qualifying Examinations and Eligibility

A pass in the HSC (Academic: both +1 and +2) or its equivalent with a minimum average percentage is given below:

• General Category - 45%
• Backward Class, including Backward Class Muslim - 40%
• MBC & DNC - 40%
• SC/SCA/ST - 40%

OR

A pass in any one of the HSC (Vocational Subject: both +1 and +2) as given below with any one of the Engineering subjects namely Mathematics, Physics or Chemistry with a minimum average percentage put together as given below:

• General Category - 45%
• Backward Class, including Backward Class Muslim - 40%
• MBC & DNC - 40%
• SC/SCA/ST - 40%

The candidates have to register for TNEA 2026 to participate in the counselling and seat allotment process. The steps to apply for TNEA 2026 counselling are given below:

1. Registration: Candidates have to enter required details and also verify their contact number using the OTP sent. On successful registrtion the TNEA USER ID will be generated
2. Login: Next login with the User ID and password created at the time of TNEA registration.
3. Filling application form: Now under the login, fill all the required details in TNEA application form.
4. Preview and final submission: Check all details in the form carefully.
5. Payment of application fee: In this step, pay the application fee via the available mode of online payment.
6. Printout of application form: After the form is submitted, candidates must take printout of the filled in form and keep it with them for future reference.

TNEA 2026 Application Fee

The application fee to apply for TNEA is as follows:

The overall rank and community-wise TNEA rank lists are made available on the official TNEA website. The allotment of college and branch is provisional and conducted exclusively through online counselling, based on the candidates' choices and their overall rank and community rank. There will be no separate announcements in newspapers.

One week will be given to redress the grievances in the rank list. Grievance redressal will be in-person, and applicants can contact the Office of the Secretary, TNEA, Directorate of Technical Education or nearby TFCs. 

TNEA Counselling 2026 Selection Criteria for Rank List

The candidates will be selected based on their performance in the prescribed subjects, which will be scaled down to a total of 200 marks (Mathematics: 100, Physics: 50, Chemistry: 50) in the qualifying examination. The marks provided by the candidates through the TNEA 2026 application form will undergo normalisation, and a merit list will be published based on the normalised scores.

Normalisation of Marks for ranking

The marks obtained by students in the qualifying examination conducted by different Boards or authorities will be equated with the marks obtained by students in the same subjects in the qualifying examination conducted by the State Board of Tamil Nadu using a normalisation method.

For example, if the highest mark obtained by a student of the State Board of Tamil Nadu in Physics is 100 and the highest mark obtained by a student of any other Board in the same subject is 90, both the highest marks will be considered equal to 100. If a student from another board secures 60 marks in physics, when the highest mark on that board is 90, 60 marks will be considered equal to 66. The normalisation formula is (60/90) * 100 = 66.66%.

After normalising marks in the relevant subjects from different boards, the qualified students will be combined into a common merit list.

The TNEA 2026 merit list is determined based on a total mark of 200. In cases where multiple candidates achieve the same marks in the common merit list, the inter-se-merit among these candidates is determined based on the following priorities:

1. Percentage of marks in Mathematics
2. Percentage of marks in Physics
3. Percentage of marks in the optional subject
4. Percentage of total marks in the 12th Standard Examination
5. Date of birth (with preference given to the elder candidate)
6. Random number (higher value will be given preference)

All the applicants are assigned a TNEA random number for the tie breaker process in the TNEA merit list. If all other tie-breaking criteria for determining rank in the TNEA merit list are unsuccessful, a 10-digit random number assigned to each candidate is used to break the ties. The candidate with the higher value of the random number is given preference in the merit list. To access the TNEA random number, candidates must log in using their registration number and date of birth on the official website of TNEA - tneaonline.org.

The registered candidates should upload their copies of the following original certificates. The uploaded certificates will be verified at the TFCs. The candidate can give their preference of TFC for online Certificate Verification. The instruction for uploading the certificates is given later after the registration process is completed.

• 10th Mark Sheet
• HSC First year (+1) Marksheet
• HSC Second year (+2) / Equivalent Mark sheet
• Transfer certificate
• Registration Fee Details
• Details of Government school studied from the Sixth to the Twelfth standard for 7.5% of Government School Students Reservation
• Permanent Community Certificate for ST, SC, SCA, MBC & DNC, BC and BCM (either Permanent card or electronic form / digitally signed e-Certificate)
• Nativity Certificate (only in electronic form / digitally signed e-Certificate) (if applicable)
• Income certificate (if applicable)
• First Graduate Certificate (only in electronic form / digitally signed e-Certificate) and First Graduate Joint Declaration (if applicable)
• Sri Lankan Tamil Refugee Certificate (if applicable)
• Candidates who have applied for special reservation
• Relevant certificates for the Son / Daughter of Ex-servicemen with the Parent’s discharge certificate and ID card
• Differently abled persons should bring a Medical Certificate obtained from the Medical Board (Consisting of 3 Doctors)
• Eminent sports persons should submit all sports achievement certificates with the necessary forms.

TNEA Counselling 2026 Certificate Verification

All certificates undergo online verification at TFCs, with in-person verification specifically for sportspersons in Chennai. After the successful verification, the TNEA 2026 merit list is published according to merit, including only those candidates whose certificates have been verified. Various TNEA facilitation centres are set up to conduct TNEA counselling 2026 for the process of document verification and seat allotment.