IIT faculty seek common entrance test rollback

New Delhi: The IIT faculty federation, opposed to the proposed common entrance for admission in IITs and other centrally-funded technical institutes, on Thursday met senior PMO officials and sought a roll back of the decision.

"We are encouraged with the meeting and are hopeful of a positive outcome," secretary of All India IIT Faculty Federation (AIIITFF) A K Mittal said after meeting PM's advisor TKA Nair.

The federation is also expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday expressing reservation to the common test.

The IIT faculty federation on Thursday met senior PMO officials and sought a rollback of the decision.

The meeting assumes significance in the wake of Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal virtually ruling out going back on the Centre's new proposal.

AIIITFF had written to the Prime Minister on May 31 saying that "each IIT is an individual and independent academic entity and should reserve its right to follow its own norms with regards to admissions and other academic matter".

Sibal, who is currently on a visit to the US, has said that the government has no intent to impinge on the autonomy of the IITs.

The government had on May 28 announced that from 2013, aspiring candidates for IITs and other central institutes like NITs and IIITs will have to sit under a new format of common entrance test, which will also take the plus-two board results into consideration.

Sibal had claimed that it was approved without dissent at a council consisting of the IITs, the IIITs and the NITs.

Delhi IIT alumni association on Thursday shared a letter with the press and addressed to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal which shows IIT Kanpur's dissent over the council's decision of adopting the new test format.

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