MBBS admissions delayed, and first-year engineering classes may be reduced.

The delay in commencing medical admission is likely to result in the curtailing of first year engineering classes by as much as two months, said officials here. The counselling for students seeking engineering seats should have begun on July 2. However, for the benefit of medical aspirants who also enrolled for engineering admissions, the process was postponed till the finalization of MBBS admission by the National Medical Commission (NMC).

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A senior official from the Directorate of Technical Education (D0TE), which conducts Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA-2023), said there was no information from NMC regarding medical admissions. “Though the NMC has asked time till July second week to conduct medical counselling, the students who have enrolled for engineering courses are anxiously waiting to join,” he added.

Due to delay in completing MBBS admissions, the opening of colleges for first year engineering students would be postponed from the original schedule of September third week. “Even if the medical counselling begins in the second week of July, the admission process will go on for at least two weeks to get a clear picture to know how many aspirants who registered for both medical and engineering seats will opt for medical colleges,” he said. As per All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) schedule, the engineering counselling should be completed by second week of September. However, the council has given extension.

If engineering colleges commence first year classes by November, it would mean the academic year for these students would be truncated by around two months, the official said, adding that classes would not begin from day one, as there would be an induction programme for students for a week. “It would take at least a month to begin full-fledged classes…

We will instruct the colleges to make up for the time loss as per their convenience,” he said. Nethra B, who holds the top rank in the merit list and opted for Computer Science course at Anna University, said she was eagerly waiting to join college.

Nethra secured 598 out of 600 in the Class 12 board exams. However, medical aspirant S Mahalakshmi, who secured 200 out of 200 in the merit list and came first among the government school students, said she was waiting for the medical counselling to begin soon. “I hope MBBS admissions will begin shortly,” added Mahalakshmi, who scored 331 in NEET exams.