4,000 more students eligible for JEE advanced in May ’18

NEWDELHI: More students will get an opportunity to compete for the seats available at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the coming year.

The Joint Admission Board (JAB) took the decision to make another 4,000 students eligible for Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced (JEE-Adv) in May 2018, thus increasing the number of eligible candidates from 2.20 lakh this year to 2.24 lakh in 2018.

However, JAB is yet to reveal the number of seats that will be available in 2018.

The decision was taken citing the growing intake capacity of all 22 IITs and the Indian School of Mines (ISM) in Dhanbad. Officials told HT that making more students eligible for JEE-Adv should also help avoid vacancy in IITs.

Of the 10,998 IITs seats, the number of unclaimed seats after seven rounds of counselling stood at 121 this year — up from 96 in 2016, 50 in 2015 and just three in 2014.

Taking note of the sharp rise in the number of unclaimed seats, the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry asked the IITs to find ways to address the situation, including the option of scrapping unpopular courses.

“Growing vacancy in IITs is a big concern. While the demand for popular courses seem to be growing with each passing year, filling vacant seats for unpopular courses is becoming an uphill task. The problem persists at various institutes, including Bombay, Delhi and Kharagpur,” said a senior official from IIT-Bombay.

Last year, the decision to accommodate 2.20 lakh top candidates (up from 2 lakhs in 2016) of JEE-Mains to appear for JEEAdv was well received by the students, especially after intake capacity of IITs went up by almost 500 seats.

“This year too, Many IITs are hoping to increase their intake capacity. The final number will be revealed later,” said an official from JAB.

This inCreAses The nuMBer oF eLigiBLe CAnDiDATes FroM 2.20 LAKh This yeAr To 2.24 LAKh in 2018