Engineering colleges shocked over admission dates in AICTE new academic calendar

Aurangabad, April 27:

The Engineering colleges are worried over the deadline given for completing the first admissions round for the new academic year (2021-22) by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) as of August 31.

It may be noted that the whole admissions and examination process for the academic year 2020-21 was disturbed because of COVID outbreak in 2020.

The even first session (November-December 2020) examinations were not completed with the advent of the second wave of the pandemic, while it will take five to six months to complete the second sessions.

The examinations of HSC were postponed and the admission process of engineering will commence in the State after the declaration of the MHT-CET 21 result only. However, the AICTE declared the new academic calendar a few days ago. The colleges were shocked over the academic calendar as the last date of the first round of engineering completion was set as August 31.

The last date to conduct the second round of counselling is September 9 and the last date for commencement of classes for first-year students is September 15.

Experts feel that it would take two months to declare the result of the HSC examination if it is held in June. Registration and Centralised Admission Process would take around two to three months. This means the first round will complete in October or November 2021. They said it is not possible to adhere to the present academic calendar.

Principal of PES Engineering College Dr Abhijeet Wadekar, said that he feels that last date would be postponed considering the pandemic situation.

“The engineering admission process in the State is mostly based on HSC and MHT-CET results. The result of both examinations may be declared in August or September. As far as August 31 is concerned, the AICTE has given this deadline because of Supreme Court orders and it will pray in the court for the date extension. The last year too the date was postponed. Last year, the council gave time till November 30 to complete the counselling due to the pandemic,”he added.

A principal of another private college on the condition of anonymity said that it is not possible to complete the first round of admissions up to August 31. “The AICTE will have to revise the schedule given the current situation.

I am sure the State Common Entrance Test Cell and Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) will take up the issue of dates the Council,” he added.