NITs to Consider IIT Style Admissions

The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are going to come to a conclusion whether the institute would select candidates based on the JEE Advanced exam. This admission process will bring them at par with that of the elite Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Presently the admission process of NITs conforms by giving 40% weightage to the candidate’s Class 12 Board marks and 60% of the scores acquired in JEE Main examination, which is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Nearly 13 lakh students appeared for the JEE Mains this year. The top 1. 5 lakh performers of JEE Main are allowed to sit for another exam called JEE Advanced for admissions in IITs.

Based solely on the JEE Advanced scores, the IITs prepare their merit list using the eligibility criterion of 75% marks or an 80 percentile score, whichever is lower, in the candidate’s Board exams.

The latest recommendations by the standing committee of the NIT council constituting 10 directors from the 31 institutes all over the country and the heads of higher education regulatory bodies, will bar the possibility of any different eligibility criterion. Another suggestion was that the NITs can join the CBSE in organising the JEE Main exam while the IITs continue to conduct the JEE Advanced exam.

IIT Bombay director, Prof. Devang Khakhar had earlier suggested that the NITs should scrap the weightage given to class 12 Board exam marks and must select candidates solely on the basis of their JEE Main scores. He elucidated three points with his suggestion, first being some school boards delaying in displaying the results would hold up the NIT admissions. Then the board weightage had failed in its stated objectives of increasing the intake of rural students and discouraging private coaching.

Recently the Joint Admission Board, a panel of IIT directors, discussed a proposal to make the JEE Advanced a computer-based test from 2017. Although two concerns were expressed- whether all rural candidates would be proficient enough with computers and whether two lakh computers can be arranged at one go.

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