The reservation policy for the Government of Tamil Nadu Arts colleges for the 2025-26 academic year allocates seats based on a total of 69% reservation for various categories and 31% for Open Competition (OC).

The rule of reservation applies to 100% of seats in government colleges, but is only available to native candidates of Tamil Nadu. Candidates from other states are considered under the Open Competition category.

Reservation Roster (2025-26)

The percentage breakdown for admissions is as follows:

• Open Competition (OC): 31%
• Backward Classes (BC): 26.5%
• Backward Class Muslims (BCM): 3.5%
• Most Backward Classes (MBC) and Denotified Communities (DNC): 20%
• Scheduled Castes (SC): 15%
• Scheduled Castes (Arunthathiyars) (SCA): 3%
• Scheduled Tribes (ST): 1%

SPECIAL CATEGORIES AND ADDITIONAL QUOTAS

• Differently Abled Persons: A 5% horizontal reservation is applied across all categories (OC, BC, MBC/DNC, SC/SCA/ST) for eligible differently-abled candidates with a permanent physical impairment of 40% and above.
• Ex-servicemen Children: Six seats in undergraduate courses are reserved for children of ex-servicemen of Tamil Nadu origin.
• Government School Students: A separate 7.5% vertical reservation of seats is implemented for students who studied from Class 6 to 12 in government schools. This is primarily mentioned for engineering but similar schemes apply to arts and science colleges admissions (TNGASA).