Tamil Nadu: AICTE schedule delay likely to affect engineering admissions

CHENNAI: The delay in the release of the new academic calendar by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has put the higher education department in a fix over the scheduling counselling dates for engineering admissions in Tamil Nadu.

A senior official from the Higher Education department pointed out that last year the AICTE had released the academic calendar in May. “However, this year it is slightly delayed and the reason is unknown,” he added.

The official also highlighted that the early release of the academic calendar would help the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) schedule the counselling session soon, enabling students to be prepared.

Pointing out that last year (2024), the engineering counselling started on July 22 and ended on September 11, the official said, “It was expected that the counselling would start earlier so that the classes would commence in September, benefitting the first-year students.”

Meanwhile, the DOTE on Saturday said that a record number of over 2.7 lakh students have enrolled for engineering admissions this year.

A senior official from the DOTE said that a total of 2,74,693 students have enrolled (as of May 31), which is high compared to last year's figure of about 2.3 lakh applicants. “As the last day for registration of online applications is on June 6, we expect that nearly three lakh students could enroll, which would be the highest of all times,” he claimed.

The DOTE official also said that of the total enrollment, as many as 1,77,646 students have completed all the formalities including paying the registration fees and uploading their required mandatory documents.

Concerning other engineering admission schedules, the official said that after completion of the enrollment process, the random number will be released on June 11. “Following the verification of certificates, the much-awaited rank list will be released on June 27,” he said.