Plan to Introduce Single Engineering Entrance Exam Put on Hold: HRD Ministry

The decision to introduce a common entrance exam for admission to engineering institutes has been put on hold by the Union HRD Ministry till a consensus is reached by the states.

In March 2017, the AICTE had announced that a single engineering entrance exam will be introduced for engineering aspirants in the country. The technical education regulator had also added that the exam will be introduced from the academic year 2018.

The decision was opposed by the state governments of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. Following the opposition, the HRD Ministry decided to get the approval and opinion of all states before officially introducing the exam.

An official associated with the matter said that consensus is paramount before introducing the exam in order to conduct the national-level test without glitches.

The official further added that the common entrance exam will be followed by a centralised counselling. Discussions regarding this need to be conducted with the state, the official added.

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The concept of conducting a common entrance test for engineering colleges was taken from the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) conducted for admission to all medical and dental colleges across India. The HRD Ministry decided to launch a single engineering entrance exam on the lines of NEET.

Currently, the JEE Main exam is conducted by the CBSE for admission to the various central government, state government and private technical colleges and universities. Although JEE Main is conducted at All-India level, there are various states and private universities that conduct their own exam for admission to engineering programmes.

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Close to 11 lakh students appear for JEE Main every year for more than 3,300 approved engineering colleges in India.