AICTE revises academic calendar

Last date for first-year admissions is November 30, classes from December 1

Hyderabad: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has revised the academic calendar and the last date for commencement of classwork for the first-year engineering courses for the academic year 2020-21 is December 1. The Council has also extended the last date for admissions into first-year engineering courses including undergraduate and diploma lateral entry till November 30.

Earlier, the last date for admissions and commencement of classes for first-year students was November 1.

“Due to prolonged emergent conditions in the country and requests from various State governments, and the ongoing admission process of IIT’s and NIT’s, the Council has extended the last date of admission to the first year engineering courses (UG and Diploma lateral entry) to November 30. Accordingly, the last date of commencement of classes of first-year is December 1,” the AICTE said, in a letter to all AICTE approved universities/institutes.

Meanwhile, the State government has permitted the introduction of new courses in emerging technologies in engineering colleges in the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University-Hyderabad (JNTU-H) for the academic year 2020-21.

The new courses include BTech Computer Science and Engineering-Cyber Security, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Data Science, Internet of Things, Networking, Software Engineering, and Computer Science and Business System. A total of 18,210 seats will be available for admissions in these courses. With the addition of these seats, more than 82,000 seats will be available for admissions in the JNTU-H colleges.

This year, around 120 private engineering colleges sought course conversion from the traditionally popularly courses such as Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering to courses in emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Cyber Security, and Data Science, among others. Accordingly, the State government has granted permission for new courses and seats.

Candidates can get admissions into these courses by participating in the Telangana State Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test (TS EAMCET) 2020 counselling which is underway.