No college admission for these students in Telangana

With new admission rules coming into effect from this year, students from Andhra Pradesh and other States even after topping the entrance exams will not get an admission to engineering and other professional colleges in Telangana

Hyderabad: Beginning this year, even topping entrance examinations, including the Telangana Engineering, Agriculture and Pharmacy Common Entrance Test (TG EAPCET), will not help students from Andhra Pradesh (AP) and other States secure a seat in colleges in the State.

With new admission rules coming into effect from the academic year 2025-26, AP students, including TG EAPCET 2025 engineering stream topper Palla Bharath Chandra and third ranker P Hema Sai Surya Karthik and candidates from other States cannot secure admission in engineering and other professional colleges in Telangana.

This comes, as the Higher Education Department recently issued an order mandating 85 per cent of the seats be reserved for Telangana locals (Osmania University area) from academic year 2025-26.

The remaining 15 per cent of seats will come under the unreserved category. Candidates declared as locals of OU area are eligible for unreserved category seats. Further, children of parents, who resided in the State for 10 years, Central government employees and university staff, are also eligible for admissions under the unreserved category.

The order was issued as the 10-year common admissions between Telangana and AP as laid down in the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 ended this academic year i.e. 2024-25. Due to common admissions, Telangana colleges reserved 85 per cent of seats for locals and remaining 15 percent for AP students. The same was followed by the AP. This rule enabled around 3,500 to 4,000 AP students to join engineering colleges under 15 per cent quota every year.

Now, to claim Telangana local nativity, candidates should have studied four consecutive years out of seven years from Class VI to XII in the State. For instance, those students who studied from Classes VI to IX or Classes IX to XII are considered locals.

After completing schooling in their native State, several AP students pursue their intermediate in Hyderabad. Given this rule, they will not be eligible for admission in Telangana. In addition, as there is no 15 per cent quota for AP students, Telangana students who secure rank under 10,000 in TG EAPCET are expected to get admissions in top engineering colleges.

No clartity on admissions into UG engineering programmes

Nearly two week into declaration of TG EAPCET, there is no clarity on the schedule for admissions into undergraduate engineering programmes.

Last year, the schedule was announced on May 24 and registrations commenced on June 27. However, this year, the delay in schedule announcement, according to sources, is due to the All India Council for Technical Education delay in giving a nod to private engineering colleges. In addition, there is no clarity on the fee structure in the private engineering colleges.

The Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee, which has taken up engineering fee revision exercise for the three year block period commencing academic year 2025-26, is yet to finalise the fee.

According to sources, during the recent committee meeting, a few government officials expressed their displeasure over steep fee hikes in certain engineering colleges. The TARFC was asked to redo the fee fixation process for several colleges where there was abnormal fee hike, sources said.

the TG EAPCET admission counselling is linked to the JoSAA counselling held for admissions to IITs, NITs and IIITs in the country. “The JoSAA counselling is commencing June 3. After completion of six to seven rounds of JoSAA counselling, the TG EAPCET counselling is expected to begin in the last week of June or first week of July,” sources said.