JU reinstates JELET lateral-entry admissions; diploma candidates offered ways to bridge academic gaps

Jadavpur University has decided to resume admitting engineering diploma graduates into its BTech programs through the JELET lateral-entry pathway, overturning an earlier announcement that had temporarily blocked their entry.

Under the revised plan, eligible diploma students may enroll this year, but they must complete additional online coursework to make up for portions of the second-year syllabus they would normally cover before joining. The delay in conducting the JELET exam and the subsequent counselling process created a significant academic backlog, prompting the university to introduce compensatory measures.

Students have also been given a second option: they can accept provisional admission right away but formally join classes next academic year, when the second-year curriculum begins.

A total of 150 lateral-entry seats are available in the JU BTech programmes.

Ordinarily, JELET is held in July, with counselling soon after, allowing diploma entrants to merge with the existing second-year cohort by August. However, this cycle was pushed back drastically—this year’s exam took place on October 18, and counselling is scheduled to continue until December 26.

The prolonged delay followed the late release of the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination results on August 22, which itself was postponed by legal proceedings over OBC reservation categories. The setback for the main JEE pushed the JELET schedule even further back, leading JU’s vice-chancellor, Chiranjib Bhattacharjee, to initially suspend lateral-entry admissions.

According to engineering faculty dean Parthapratim Biswas, students joining through JELET must now complete online modules offered through central government learning platforms to close the learning gap. Those who opt for the current-year admission plan will sit for their regular exams in mid-February, alongside supplementary exams for second-year BTech students.

The university may also arrange for visiting faculty members to guide the online coursework, according to internal sources.

The earlier decision to stop JELET admissions had sparked demonstrations from students. An official from the state education department remarked that the alternatives now being offered could likely have been planned in advance.

Calcutta University, which had considered expanding JELET-based admissions across all eight of its BTech departments this year, also had to shelve its proposal because of the prolonged entrance exam delay. CU currently admits JELET candidates only in jute and fibre technology, and an attempt to include other engineering branches was abandoned when the scheduling issues persisted, said Amit Roy, secretary of the university’s science and engineering faculty.