Jadavpur University has reversed its initial decision to bar engineering diploma holders from BTech admissions via the lateral entrance test (JELET).

The university will now accept these students but requires them to attend supplementary online classes to compensate for coursework missed due to delays in the entrance test and admission cycle.

The second option students may choose is to take provisional admission now and start attending classes next year, when the second-year classes begin.

There are 150 seats in JU BTech for diploma students who are admitted through JELET.

Generally, the exam is conducted in July, and after the counselling session, the JELET group of students is combined in August with the second-year BTech students who were admitted in the first year through the Bengal JEE.

This year, the JELET was held on October 18, and the counselling, which started on Wednesday, will continue till December 26.

The results of the state JEE were published on August 22, over two-and-a-half months after schedule. They came after the Supreme Court ordered a stay on a high court stay on a Bengal government notification on 17 per cent OBC reservation for 140 sub-categories. The JEE delay led to an even more delayed JELET.

JU vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee last week cited the delay as the reason for not admitting students through lateral entry.

“The students admitted through JELET now would have to attend online classes offered by various platforms of the Union government to make up for the deficit,” said Parthapratim Biswas, the dean of the engineering and technology faculty.

“Another option is that the students can take provisional admission now and start attending classes next year when the second-year classes will start,” he said.

The students who will attend online classes to offset the deficit will write their examination in mid-February.

“Second-year BTech students will write their supplementary examinations in February, and students admitted through JELET will write their regular examination,” said JU’s dean of engineering.

The university might ask some visiting faculty members to conduct the online classes, sources said.

The university’s decision not to admit students through JELET had triggered student protests.

“The alternatives that the university is now citing could have been worked out earlier,” said an education department official.

Calcutta University, which thought it would admit students in all its eight BTEch disciplines through JELET, halted its decision because of the delay in the entrance test.

“We admit students to jute and fibre technology through the JELET. This year, we thought of admitting students to streams like computer science and electronics and engineering through JELET. Our plan did not work out due to the delay,” said Amit Roy, secretary of CU’s science and engineering faculty.