AICTE releases academic schedule for engineering courses, classes to begin from December 1

The new academic session for the 1st year Engineering students which usually starts in July-August every year will start over three months later from the beginning of December this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The latest change in the schedule of the engineering academic session was made by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which is the government regulator of the Engineering institutions across the country, the Indian Express reported. Along with announcing the beginning of the new session from December 1, the AICTE also extended the last date of admissions of students into the engineering courses till November 30.

In an issued statement, the AICTE said the decision to extend the admission schedule was reached after requests were made from several state governments as well as ace engineering institutions like IITs and NITs which are in the middle of admitting students to the engineering courses. The changed schedule will be applicable for students willing to take admissions into the undergraduate as well as the diploma engineering courses, the statement added.

According to the earlier AICTE schedule which now stands defunct, the classes of the first year students were supposed to commence from September 15. AICTE has issued several instructions to the higher education institutions under its ambit during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic to ease the problems of the students. It had earlier asked institutions to admit students on a temporary or provisional basis until the result of their undergraduate courses are released. It had also asked institutes not to hike their tuition fee during the current academic year in view of the Covid-19 induced financial burden.

After several postponements, the all India level entrance exam JEE Mains exam was finally held between September 1 and September 6 this year. Due to the delay in conducting the JEE Mains exam, its next stage JEE Advanced exam and further admission process has got delayed. The JEE Advance exam was conducted on September 27 last month. Based on the score in both the prelims (Mains) as well as the Advanced exams, students will be allotted the engineering institutions of their choice.