Thiagarajar College Of Engineering, Madurai

Thiagarajar College of Engineering (TCE) sells five of its B.E. branches at two prices. A 2026 entrant on the aided Computer Science seat pays Rs 15,750 a year, one on the self-supporting Computer Science seat pays Rs 85,550, and in the first round of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions the cheaper seat was also the harder one to get.

The national rank the Madurai college puts on its ranking page, 33rd in NIRF 2025, does not describe those engineering branches. It was earned by the architecture school, now called T'SEDA, whose B.Arch runs only as a self-supporting course at Rs 1,20,450 a year. Engineering gets no number at all, only a place in a 101-150 grouping.

TCE is a government-aided autonomous college set up in 1957 by Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar, affiliated to Anna University, Chennai and approved by AICTE, on its About page. The management is the Kalaithanthai Karumuttu Thiagaraja Chettiar Memorial Charitable Trust, registered with the Income Tax Department on 09/02/1978 and addressed at the Thiagarajar Mills premises in Kappalur, and the campus is at Thiruparankundram, Madurai 625015, per the AICTE mandatory disclosure for 2025-26. The same disclosure names Dr. L. Ashok Kumar as Principal.

The college has answered to three universities. Its history page records affiliation from the University of Madras in 1958 for civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, a move to the newly formed Madurai University in 1966, autonomous status in 1987, and a transfer of affiliation from Madurai Kamaraj University to Anna University in 2001; B.Arch arrived in 1995 and the women's hostel in 2003, on the TCE history page.

Engineers dominate the roll, and the roll is overwhelmingly drawn from Tamil Nadu. The engineering data TCE filed for NIRF 2026 counts 4160 undergraduates, 2421 men and 1739 women, with 4125 from within the state, in its NIRF 2026 engineering submission. The architecture submission counts 403 students in the five-year programme, and 253 of them are women, in the NIRF 2026 architecture submission.

Searches for the name also surface Thiagarajar College, an arts and science college under Madurai Kamaraj University, and Thiagarajar School of Management; neither shares this college's admissions or fees.

What Autonomy Changes at TCE

At TCE autonomy means the college writes the rules and sets the papers, while Anna University still issues the certificate. TCE's B.Arch rules, for example, were approved by its own Board of Studies on 19.06.2021 and its 61st Academic Council meeting on 03.07.2021, and they set how an architectural design studio is marked: 60 marks of continuous assessment and a terminal viva voce reduced to 40, with Practical Training fixed in the ninth semester and a minimum of 260 credits for the degree, in the B.Arch regulations 2021.

Those terminal examinations run through TCE's own Controller of Examinations, on its examinations page. The certificates do not. TCE says provisional certificates are issued by Anna University, Chennai, on its provisional certificate page, and that degree certificates are handed out once received from the university, on its degree certificate page.

TCE's undergraduate list pairs each programme with a TNEA branch code, and the code decides the fee. Five B.E. branches exist twice, once as an aided seat and once as a self-supporting (SS) seat, while newer programmes run only as SS courses.

The aided figure is low for a stated reason. The circular dated 24.07.2026 says the Tuition Fee Waiver scheme applies from 2026-2027 and that the entire tuition fee has been deducted for students in the Government Aided category, so Rs 15,750 is what remains of the course fee. The SS rates split on a label the circular prints above each column: programmes marked accredited cost Rs 85,550, those marked non-accredited Rs 80,550 (B.E. admission circular).

First graduates pay less on every SS seat: Rs 58,050 on the accredited programmes and Rs 55,550 on the others (B.E. admission circular), and Rs 95,450 on the B.Arch. Government school students allotted under the 7.5% special category pay no fee, and the college takes no cash or cheque, only online payment (B.Arch admission circular).

At postgraduate level TCE lists five M.E. programmes at 18 seats each, an MCA with 30 and the M.Plan (Urban Planning) with 20, and it runs a five-year integrated M.Sc. (Data Science) with 40 as a separate category (programmes offered). The M.Plan was designed in academic collaboration with CEPT University, Ahmedabad (T'SEDA). The 2026-2027 eligibility sheet for the M.E. and M.Plan programmes ends with its fee: Rs 1,30,000 a year, paid as Rs 65,000 in the odd semester and Rs 65,000 in the even one, by demand draft to the Principal or online (PG eligibility 2026-2027). That sheet does not cover the MCA, and no MCA fee is posted beside it.

TCE runs no entrance examination for first-year places. The 2026-27 admissions page carries one circular for B.E., B.Tech. and B.Des. candidates allotted through TNEA counselling, one for B.Arch candidates, a lateral-entry circular and the postgraduate notices, on TCE's admissions page. The Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE), Tamil Nadu runs TNEA, and TCE's counselling code is 5008 (T'SEDA brochure).

B.E., B.Tech. and B.Des. Through TNEA

TNEA ranks engineering applicants on Class 12 marks with no entrance paper: Mathematics out of 100, Physics out of 50 and Chemistry out of 50, under communal reservation, as TCE's mandatory disclosure sets out. At option-filling the practical decision is the branch code. Picking CS rather than CM is choosing the aided Computer Science seat at Rs 15,750 over the SS one at Rs 85,550 (B.E. admission circular), and the table in the Cutoff section shows what that choice cost in marks in 2026.

An allotted candidate reports at the KS Auditorium between 9.00 am and 4.00 pm on a working day and must complete admission by the last date printed on the provisional allotment order, or the allotment is cancelled (B.E. admission circular). Diploma holders enter the second year through the separate TNLEA counselling, reporting at the same auditorium (lateral entry circular 2026-2027). TCE's published admission material describes no management-quota application.

B.Arch Through TNEA's Architecture Merit List

B.Arch seats come from a separate TNEA merit list at barch.tneaonline.org. Its 2026 rules require a pass in all subjects of 10+2 with Physics and Mathematics compulsory and at least 45% in aggregate, or a 10+3 diploma with Mathematics as a compulsory subject and at least 45% in aggregate, plus a qualifying score in either JEE Paper 2 conducted by NTA or NATA conducted by the Council of Architecture (TNEA B.Arch information brochure 2026).

JEE Paper 2 and NATA are treated alike in the ranking. The brochure reduces the marks of all Class 12 subjects to 200, adds the NATA or JEE mark out of 200 and ranks on the total of 400, breaking ties first on the Class 12 aggregate, then in favour of the elder candidate, then on a random number (TNEA B.Arch information brochure 2026).

TCE's own B.Arch admission page has not caught up. It still asks for 50% in aggregate and 70 out of 200 in NATA and says admission runs through the single window system of Anna University, on the TCE B.Arch admission page. For 2026 the TNEA brochure and TCE's circular of 03.08.2026, headed as allotment through DOTE counselling, are the documents that match what actually happened (B.Arch admission circular).

M.E. and M.Plan

Postgraduate entry is on GATE or TANCET for the M.E. programmes and on TANCET for the MCA, per the mandatory disclosure. The M.Plan accepts graduates in B.Plan, B.Arch or civil engineering, AIIA qualifiers registered with the Council of Architecture, and master's graduates in subjects such as geography, economics and sociology (PG eligibility 2026-2027).

TNEA's round-by-round allotment lists show, for every candidate placed, the aggregate mark out of 200, the college code, the branch code and the category the seat was allotted in. Reading the 2026 first-round list for college 5008 gives the lowest aggregate TCE admitted in the OC, BC and MBC categories. Later rounds added no allotments in those three categories at TCE except in Fashion Technology and Interior Design, so for every branch in the table these first-round closes were final.

Mechatronics, code MG, has no aided twin; on the same round 1 list its lowest OC allotment at TCE was 185.000 and its lowest BC allotment 181.500 (TNEA 2026 round 1 allotment list).

In every one of the five paired branches the aided seat closed above its self-supporting twin for OC candidates, by two marks in Electronics and Communication, three and a half in Computer Science, four in Electrical and Electronics, five in Mechanical and eight in Civil. Both codes lead to the same B.E. degree, so the fee is the likely reason for the gap: the aided seat is billed at Rs 15,750 a year against Rs 85,550 (B.E. admission circular), and the highest scorers take it first. A candidate short of an aided close can still reach the same branch on the SS code.

The first round does not close the books. Fashion Technology filled only two seats in round 1 and B.Des. (Interior Design) seven, and later rounds went further down the list for those and for the SC, SCA and ST categories (round 1 allotment list, vacancy position after round 1). Seats under the 7.5% reservation for government school students are tracked in separate DOTE statements and are not in the table (7.5% reservation vacancy position after round 1).

TCE's AICTE disclosure gives a longer view in percentage form, and two readings of it. Its general-quota figure for Computer Science and Engineering reads 98, 100 and 99.67 for 2022-23 to 2024-25, but the mark of the last candidate admitted to the same branch reads 81.33, 93.33 and 73.67, and neither separates the aided and SS codes (mandatory disclosure 2025-26).

B.Arch Closing Marks

For architecture, DOTE publishes community-wise closing marks out of 400 as separate documents. TCE's B.Arch appears on them as BA, ARCHITECTURE(SS).

The OC close jumped from 295.67 in 2023 to 319.3333 in 2024, and in both years the BC Muslim close sat above the BC close (2023 B.Arch mark cutoff, 2024 B.Arch mark cutoff). On the 2024 list only three rows closed higher for OC candidates, the two Anna University School of Architecture and Planning streams at 339 and 331.2 and PSG Institute of Architecture and Planning at 322.3333, and the order was the same in 2023 (2024 B.Arch mark cutoff, 2023 B.Arch mark cutoff). In 2025 every TCE close fell, the OC figure to 274, yet the same three rows were still the only ones above it, at 299.4, 285 and 280.333 (2025 B.Arch mark cutoff).

For 2026, DOTE's B.Arch general academic allotment list gives the marks directly. The lowest aggregate allotted a seat at TCE was 274.000 on an OC seat, 265.200 on BC, 255.200 on BCM, 248.667 on MBC, 226.600 on SC, 245.200 on SCA and 208.417 on ST, across 50 allotments (B.Arch 2026 general academic provisional allotment list). DOTE's later statement shows no B.Arch vacancy left at TCE after the SCA to SC conversion counselling.

Roughly four of every five B.E. and B.Tech. students who finished on time found jobs in each batch of TCE's 2026 engineering return, and the median offer climbed batch on batch.

The Career Development Cell (CDC) reports its drives separately. For 2025-2026 it lists 104 companies, 756 students placed, 78.24% of eligible B.E. and B.Tech. students placed, a median of 7.4 Lakhs and a highest offer of 54 Lakhs, on the CDC placement statistics page. Postgraduates did worse on the same page, with 47.62% of ME and MCA students placed in 2025-2026.

B.Arch Graduates

T'SEDA's return shows a smaller share of each class placed, and at lower pay.

The 2024-25 architecture median of Rs 4,00,000 was little more than half the engineering median of Rs 7,45,000 for the same year (NIRF 2026 architecture submission, NIRF 2026 engineering submission). The M.Arch, which had no intake by 2024-25 when the M.Plan began, sent out small and fully placed classes: 9 of 9 for 2022-23 and 13 of 13 for 2023-24, each at a median of Rs 4,50,000.

Architecture jobs do not appear to come through the campus drive. The CDC's company-wise sheet for 2024-25 has an ARCH column with a single placement, at LNT ECC, and its 2023-24 sheet also shows one (CDC company statistics 2024-25, CDC company statistics 2023-24). Set against 55 and 59 B.Arch graduates reported as placed in those years, most architecture placements were evidently found outside the cell, so ask T'SEDA which practices hire its graduates.

Results before placement are strong on paper. The disclosure counts 77 of 81 B.Arch students graduating in 2024-25, 70 of them with a first class and 3 with distinction (mandatory disclosure 2025-26).

TNEA divides every TCE branch under Tamil Nadu's communal reservation, with the 7.5% preference for government school students applied inside each category.

DOTE's vacancy statements show how those shares filled in 2026. After round 1, every OC, BC, BCM and MBC seat at TCE was taken except in Fashion Technology and Interior Design; the gaps elsewhere were reserved seats, such as 8 SC seats in self-supporting Mechanical Engineering and 7 in self-supporting Civil Engineering (vacancy position after round 1). After the SCA to SC conversion counselling, every TCE branch showed zero vacancies, and so did the B.Arch (vacancy position after SCA to SC conversion, B.Arch vacancy position after SCA to SC conversion).

TCE's disclosure records admissions a little above sanctioned intake in several branches. Electrical and Electronics Engineering took 127 against 120 in 2023-24, Computer Science and Engineering 185 against 180 in both 2023-24 and 2024-25, and Electronics and Communication 184 against 180 in 2024-25, while the B.Arch took exactly 80 of 80 in each of the three years. The first B.Des. batch filled 23 of 30 places, and M.E. Construction Engineering and Management admitted no one against 18 seats in 2024-25 (mandatory disclosure 2025-26).

Of the NIRF returns TCE files, two matter here: IR-A-C-26794 for architecture and IR-E-C-26794 for engineering. The 2025 architecture return lists nothing but the five-year B.Arch at 80 seats and a two-year postgraduate line, so every B.E. seat on this page sits outside that 33 (NIRF 2025 architecture submission); the 2026 return adds the four-year B.Des. at 30 seats (NIRF 2026 architecture submission). TCE's own ranking page lists both results side by side, 101-150 in engineering and 33rd in architecture and planning, on its ranking and recognition page.

The total score slipped from 54.71 to 52.56 between the 2024 and 2025 tables, and the largest single loss was teaching, learning and resources, down almost six points from 61.14 to 55.37, while research, outreach and perception rose slightly. Graduation outcomes have slipped every year on this record, from 78.55 in 2020 to 71.08.

More Tamil Nadu institutions now finish above it. The 2020 table held four Tamil Nadu names and only NIT Tiruchirappalli stood above TCE among them. By 2025 the state had five names on the list and TCE's 33 was the lowest of them, below NIT Tiruchirappalli (9), SRM Institute of Science and Technology (18), Anna University (28) and Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute (32) (NIRF 2020 Architecture, NIRF 2025 Architecture and Planning).

On the engineering side, TCE's entry appears only as a name in the 101-150 group of the 2023, 2024 and 2025 engineering lists, with nothing beside it to say where in that group it fell. Before that the engineering side did carry numbers, and they were falling: 64th in 2020, 71st in 2021 and 85th in 2022. TCE's ranking page adds that it was featured in Times Higher Education lists and in QS World University Rankings: Asia 2026, but names no band for either. As of September 2026 the NIRF portal's latest released edition is 2025, so the 2026 returns quoted on this page have not yet produced a rank.

The Kalaithanthai Centenary Memorial Library lists 90696 books, 14126 book bank books, 1204 subscribed e-books and 39018 e-journals, runs on Autolib software with RFID, and opens 8.00 AM to 6.30 PM on weekdays and 9.00 AM to 5.00 PM on Saturdays, on the library page.

T'SEDA's brochure names a Building Science Lab, a 3D Modeling Lab, an Environmental Research Lab, a VR Lab, a physical modelling workshop, a Computer Aided Design Lab and a carpentry workshop, and gives staff-student ratios of 1:10 for the B.Arch and the M.Plan and 1:15 for the B.Des. (T'SEDA brochure). The architecture return puts Rs 11,62,376 into studios for 2024-25, against Rs 6,69,617 in 2023-24 (NIRF 2026 architecture submission).

The engineering return shows where most capital money goes. New laboratory equipment and software took Rs 3,87,43,478 in 2024-25, and other capital assets such as classrooms and seminar halls Rs 3,91,48,916, up from Rs 10,42,341 the year before (NIRF 2026 engineering submission).

Hostel

TCE prices its hostels by block and by air-conditioning, with mess included in the annual figure.

The Arumbu and Malar rooms are marked subject to availability, and the hostel request form is handed out at the admission venue. Students bring a passport-size and a stamp-size photograph, a family photograph, an Aadhaar copy, a medical fitness certificate and a local guardian's details (B.Arch admission circular). The women's hostel page repeats that accommodation depends on availability (women's hostel).

The engineering return lists 283 teachers, 274 of them still working at TCE when it was filed, and most of those still in post hold a Ph.D (NIRF 2026 engineering submission). Research students are split fairly evenly by mode, 123 full time and 106 part time, and 2024-25 brought 16 full-time and 21 part-time doctorates. For the engineering departments 2024-25 meant Rs 1,70,71,000 across 15 sponsored projects and Rs 2,14,90,305 across 287 consultancy jobs, with 13 patents granted in calendar 2024. Among the chemistry faculty, Dr. R. Vasudevan received the Padma Shri for his work on roads laid with waste plastic (About page).

Doctorates are far scarcer in T'SEDA. Its return names 58 teachers, 49 of them still in post when filed, 35 regular and 14 visiting, and nine of the 49 hold a Ph.D; the rest mostly hold an M.Arch. (NIRF 2026 architecture submission). Nine people left between 31-05-2025 and 14-01-2026, four of them visiting teachers who all left on 30-07-2025. The head is Dr. Jinu Louishidha Kitchley, a professor who joined on 20-07-2009.

T'SEDA's income from outside work has shrunk. Four consultancy jobs paid Rs 4,27,335 in 2024-25 where six had paid Rs 16,84,446 in 2022-23, and two sponsored projects added Rs 1,63,500 (NIRF 2026 architecture submission).

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