IIT directors discuss compromise formula

Ahead of next week’s meeting called by the government on the single entrance exam row, IIT directors on Saturday discussed a compromise formula, which includes a proposal to take the top 20-30 students based on percentile ranking of the respective boards, for preparing the merit list.

Indications are that the percentile criteria, replacing the proposed format of giving weightage to board results, were deliberated at the Joint Admission Board (JAB) meeting, comprising IIT directors, as an alternative, possibly drawing a near-unanimity.

The proposal is believed to have been mooted by the HRD Ministry and circulated among the directors to end the impasse.

The percentile criteria, along with performance in the JEE-Main, will be used for selecting around 50,000 students, and their score at the advanced test conducted by IITs will be taken into account to prepare the merit list for admission to IITs.

IIT senates are expected to deliberate on this, after its approval at the IIT council meet.

JAB has been conducting the IIT entrance test for 50 years. The meeting also evaluated the conduct of IIT-JEE 2012.

Insiders also suggested that some directors were averse to discussing the proposed test at the JAB, and insisted that the issue be deliberated only at the special IIT council meet.

The IIT council, the highest decision-making body headed by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, includes Directors of all the 16 IITs, and heads of educational bodies like UGC and AICTE.