Ending weeks of disagreement over the common entrance test for admission to undergraduate engineering courses in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), the IIT Council on Wednesday approved a fresh formula, based on the rank achieved in the advanced test, subject to the condition that selected candidates are in the top 20 percentile of successful candidates of their Boards.
In simple terms, it means that a student will be required to clear the common joint entrance examination (JEE)-main with a high score to qualify for the advanced examination, which will be held for those aspiring to enter the IIT system. However, students who crack the advanced examination, only those who are placed in the top 20 percentile in the Board exams will be admitted to the IITs.
The IIT Council, which approved the recommendations of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IITs, was chaired by M.M. Sharma, Chairman, Board of Governors of the IIT-Madras and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the IIT Council, instead of Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal. Mr. Sibal decided to stay away from the meeting to allow freedom to the Council to take a call on the proposals.
While the All-India IIT Faculty Federation has appreciated the initiative, the IIT-Delhi Alumni has said it will meet on Thursday to discuss the issue.
Addressing reporters after the meeting, Prof. Sharma said the JEE advanced test would be held after the JEE-main. Only the top 150,000 candidates (all categories included) in the JEE-main would be qualified to appear for the JEE (erstwhile AIEEE) advanced test.
“To be implemented from 2013, admissions to the IITs will be based only on the category-wise All India Rank in the JEE advanced subject test, to condition that such students are in the top 20 percentile of successful candidates of their Boards in applicable categories,” he said. Percentile is broadly the percentage of students below the highest scorer.
The JEE advanced examination will have an exclusive Joint Admission Board and Joint Implementation Committee, which will also coordinate with the body responsible for conducting the JEE-main. “The Council has advised the JAB to constitute a group for coordination with the Council of Boards of School Education (COBSE) so as to educate the students and public about the percentile-versus-percentage approach being adopted by the Council. The JAB will submit its report within the next four months,” Prof. Sharma said.
