According to the revised calendar released by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), technical classes across the country will start from August. Engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture colleges will start from August 16 for the existing students and new batch to start from September 16.

Further to the revised calendar, another major change that will happen this year is the reduction in the number of rounds of counselling for admission of new students due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Every year engineering and other technical colleges conduct six-seven rounds of counselling for admission, but this year, due to the delay in academic schedule, only two rounds of counselling will take place.

For stand-alone colleges, diploma and certificate programmes in management — Post Graduate Diploma in Management and Post Graduate Certificate in Management will start from July 15. Counselling for admission for the fresh batch this year will start in August with only two rounds of counselling that will close by September 10.

In the absence of any guidelines from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, colleges have been asked to conduct online classes until further directions are issued. 

The AICTE is the regulatory authority for technical colleges in India, covering all engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture colleges, except those that are directly under the central government like the IITs and IIMs.

Source: The Print

Also read: CISCE to reduce syllabus by 25% for 2020-21 academic year