Govt-IITs row ends; new JEE format from 2013

New Delhi: The prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have agreed on a compromise formula on the common entrance exam for undergraduate courses after several weeks of face off with the Central Government, particularly HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. At a meeting of IIT Council in New Delhi on Wednesday the directors of all the 15 IITs agreed to implement the new admission format from 2013.

The entire process will consists of two exams - main and advanced - to be held on separate days. While the main exam will be conducted by the CBSE, the advanced exam that is likely to take place about a month after the main exam will be conducted by the IITs. The top 1.5 lakh students from the main exam merit list can take the advanced entrance exam. To be eligible for the IIT merit list the score of the advanced test as well as the condition that the aspirant is in the top 20 percentile of his/her board will be taken into account.

"The meeting was successful and unanimous agreement to proceed with admission scheme as recommended by joint admission board taken. Kanpur faculty members and other senates gave full support to this proposal. There is no compromise. It is just a single proposal with all steps clearly spelt out. All doubts have been sorted," said IIT-Kanpur Council member G Anandkrishnan.

IIT Faculty Federation member Professor SK Das told CNN-IBN that they have proposed that top 20 per cent students of each board and advanced exam marks will be qualifying standard for preparing IIT merit list.

"We have worked out a compromise formula. We have proposed that main exam be entirely conducted and set by CBSE. Top 1.5 lakh students from this exam will then take advanced exam. It will be set for different date, not the same day," Das said.

"Top 20 per cent students of each state board and advanced exam marks will be qualifying standard for preparing IIT merit list. To get admission into IITs, it's important that students score enough to be in top 20 per cent of their board (state, ICSE or CBSE) and also score well in main exam. If council and the HRD minister accept this, we will accept its implementation in 2013," he added.

After the meeting IIT Delhi said that the institutes have decided against conducting separate entrance test and are happy with the new format.

Sibal, also the IIT Council Chairperson, skipped the meeting as he wanted the IITs to sort out the issue among themselves and didn't wanted to be seen as interfering.

The 15 IITs are in New Delhi, Kanpur, Mumbai, Kharagpur, Chennai, Roorkee, Guwahati, Rajasthan, Gandhi Nagar, Patna, Hyderabad, Ropar, Mandi, Bhubaneshwar and Indore.

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