The Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H) was able to fill all 240 seats this year, perhaps for the first time after it was established in 2008. Last year, 13 seats went vacant after the final round of counselling.
This is good news for the institute that has almost shifted to its new campus in Kandi from the temporary campus in Oridnance Factory in Eddumailaram, from where it started its operation. It was not just the low rankers, but even top rankers preferred IIT-Hyderabad. Officials revealed that 19 students in the top 1,000 ranks chose Hyderabad. In fact, the Hyderabad campus was ranked seventh in the IIT rankings list released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and was the top one among the new IITs.
Several factors seem to have contributed to the institute gaining reputation among the applicants. Hyderabad as a destination attracted them and so did the proven research. The new campus with best of facilities and connectivity, and quality young faculty recruited has also caught their attention. On an average, each faculty member guides three Ph.D scholars.
IIT-Hyderabad director U.B. Desai recently told The Hindu that the institute has grown in reputation focussing on research. He said nearly 80 per cent of faculty have sponsored projects taking up research, and that too in emerging areas like 5G, digital fabrication, biotechnology, and core chemical engineering. It has become a sort of culture.
Prof. Desai also felt that ranks don’t matter in an IIT environment except the top 100, as most students with lower ranks are also good students and they can make a mark given the right environment.
The institute now has 1,900 students and 160 faculty with the ratio working out to be 12:1.
Vacant seats
Interestingly, the number of vacant seats in IITs this year has drastically come down from 341 to 73, and among these, 38 seats went vacant in IIT BHU, Varanasi. This year, 9,660 seats were on offer in 22 IITs, and the vacancy percentage stood at 0.76 compared to 3.75 per cent last year.
The drastic reduction is being attributed to six rounds of counselling, compared to three rounds last year. Another factor is said to be enhanced intake in sought-after courses like computer science and electronics.
Kanduru V. Krishna, chairman of JEE Advanced-2016, said that multiple rounds definitely helped in fewer vacancies despite seats being increased. He said the results were declared early thus helping them to conduct several rounds of admissions.
