AICTE tweaks academic calendar of colleges

Hyderabad: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has asked the engineering institutions to follow a new academic calendar for the academic year (AY) 2020-21.

An AICTE circular citing its earlier guidelines of on academic calendar issued on August 13, said it has decided to issue fresh guidelines due to the prolonged emergent conditions in the country and several requests from the State governments. Also, because of ongoing the admission process of IITs and NITs.

Accordingly, the last date of admission to engineering courses of undergraduate and diploma lateral entry is extended till November 30. The last date of commencement of classes for the first-year students will be December 1.

That apart, the AICTE said that the last date for the completion of the first round of counselling admission for allotment of seats should be completed by October 20. Similarly, the last date for the cancellation of seats of technical courses with full refund will be November 10. However, it does not apply to the PGDM and PGCM courses, it said.

The second round of counselling for allotment of seats and commencement of the classes for the first semester will be November 1. However, students can be admitted till November 15, against the vacant seats in various courses.

The final date to commence classes including the lateral entry to second-year courses for newly admitted students is November 1.

Regarding the open and distance learning courses, it said that students can be admitted in two sessions with the last date up to August 30 and February 29.

Further, institutions who have already started classes following the earlier AICTE calendar are asked to postpone or to conduct special classes. It is for the students who have to appear for their final year graduation and diploma examinations, it added.

Also, the period of the student induction programme for the AY 2020-21 has been reduced from three to one week. Accordingly, colleges are asked to conduct the induction programme of one week during the first semester. The remaining two weeks programme can be conducted in the subsequent semester as per the convenience.