The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) Board will begin counselling by the third week of June in an effort to advance the start of BTech classes, officials said after publishing the JEE results on Thursday.
Traditionally, the centralised online counselling process begins around one-and-a-half months after the results are announced, delaying the classes.
"We have received complaints that many prospective students do not take admission, and the syllabus remains incomplete because of the delayed counselling and start of classes. To avoid this, we have decided to start the counselling by the third week of June," JEE board chairman Gautam Paul said.
BTech classes started as late as October last year, prompting protests on campuses.
According to the JEE board chairman, Jadavpur University wanted to run its own counselling process this year, citing delays in the board's counselling schedule.
On June 14, the proposal was turned down.
"BTech classes will start by the end of July. The board does not want to keep students waiting. We have published the results early this year," the board chairman said.
Of the 94,901 candidates who appeared for the May 24 JEE for around 32,000 engineering seats in Bengal, 92,753 qualified.
Nine of the top 10 rank-holders are from the CBSE and ISC boards, reinforcing concerns that students from the state board continue to struggle in competitive exams.
The board chairman said BTech aspirants will be allowed to register and submit their course and college preferences in every round of counselling. The counselling process is typically conducted in three rounds.
Until last year, candidates could register and fill in their choices only during the first round and the mop-up (third) round.