Over a week after the Tamil Nadu government cancelled the arrear exams for students across the state, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has refused to accept the decision.

In a statement released on August 26, Chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy said, "Based on demand from students and recommendation by the expert panel, all students except final year students who paid fees for writing arrears are exempted from writing the exams. The marks for these exams will be awarded based on the guidelines given by University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)." The state government had already promoted all students studying BA, BSc, MA, MSc, BE/B Tech/B Arch, ME/M Tech, MCA and diploma courses to the next academic year after cancelling the current year's semester exams, except for those appearing for their final semester examination. Meanwhile, the AICTE's recent statement to Anna University has left several engineering students disappointed. Reports, however, suggest that the Tamil Nadu government is yet to make the final decision in this regard.

Anna University had confirmed on August 28 that the end-semester exams for final year students will be conducted as per the Supreme Court ruling and based on University Grants Commission’s (UGC) guidelines. Higher Education Minister KP Anbalagan announced on August 31 that the end-semester exams for all final year students across colleges in Tamil Nadu will be held after September 15.