In a fresh manual issued for the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) approved colleges, the AICTE has declared that Physics and Mathematics are no longer compulsory subjects in the 12th grade for admission into undergraduate Engineering & Technology courses such as B.Tech and B.E . This rule will come into effect from the academic year 2021-22 onwards. Such students must, however, go through a training process to become eligible to apply for B.E/B.Tech admission in engineering and technology institutions approved by the AICTE. Earlier, it was a hard rule for B.E/B.Tech aspirants to study Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as compulsory subjects at the 10+2 level to be eligible for B.E/B.Tech admission in AICTE approved technical institutions.
B.E/B.Tech aspirants can now apply for admission if they study any three subjects in class 12 from the list released by AICTE in addition to the already existing Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics subject combination -
Entrepreneurship
Business Studies
Engineering Graphics
Agriculture
Technical Vocational Subject
Biotechnology
Informatics Practices
Biology
Information Technology
Electronics
Computer Science
Aspirants must at least secure 45% aggregate (40% for reserved category students) in the aforementioned subjects to be eligible for B.E/B.Tech admission in the AICTE approved institutions.
The AICTE has said students, except for the PCM group, will be offered a “ Suitable Bridge Course ” by their respective universities to prepare them for the B.E/B.Tech degree courses.
AICTE has also announced that engineering universities, colleges and institutions cannot open new colleges in traditional and non-relevant streams. However, the existing institutions will be allowed to start new programmes in multi-disciplinary and emerging areas. Also, only those institutions will be authorized to start new courses which had above 50 per cent enrolment overall in the 2019-20 academic year.
Also Read : Literature, Arts and Music to be taught in every college - NEP 2020
The AICTE in its official handbook has also stated that multiple entry and exit options for several courses will be enabled from the academic year 2021-22 onwards, in line with the NEP 2020 . The State Technical Board will provide a skill certificate to those candidates who will exit their studies after the completion of the first/second year.