Common admission system for IITs, NITs

Board exams marks, JEE to get equal weightage

A new common admission process for entry into undergraduate engineering programs of IITs, NITs and other centrally funded technical institutions (CFTIs), giving weightage to Class XII board examination results, will be in place from 2013.

The announcement by Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday came after a meeting of Joint Councils of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and other CIFTIs here.

The decision was taken following protracted consultations spanning over two years. Under the new  process, the admission to engineering programs will be on the basis of scores obtained in both Class XII and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), to be conducted in two parts, at an all India level.

In the new format, JEE will have two parts - JEE-Main and another JEE-Advanced. Both the exams will be conducted the same day, Sibal told the media after the meeting.

As per the format, IITs will take into account scores of Class XII and the JEE-Main for screening the aspirants and prepare the merit list only on the basis of JEE-Advanced.

The weightage for the Class XII and the JEE-Main will be 50 per cent each. The top 50,000 students will be selected for the advance test after taking into account their performance in the board and the main examination.

For all other institutions like NITs, IIITs and CIFTIs, there will be no screening.

The weightage in these institutions will be given to Class XII results (40 per cent), JEE-Main (30 per cent) and JEE-Aadvanced (30 per cent). Based on the percentage, a combined merit list will be prepared. The Class XII board marks will be normalized on percentile basis through an appropriate formula.

The JEE-Main tests will comprise multiple choice objective type paper, whereas the nature and modalities of the JEE-Advanced will be determined by the Joint Admission Board of IITs.

The Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IIT system would have complete control over paper setting, evaluation and preparation of the merit list, etc. over the JEE-Advanced. The CBSE would provide the administrative support for conduct of the examination, Sibal said.
 For the conduct of the JEE-MAIN examination, an expanded Joint Admission Board will be constituted including the NIT, other CFTIs and state government representatives.

Sibal claimed “complete unanimity” at the meeting which was also attended by the representative of federation of teachers. He claimed that the new process would put out of business the “coaching factories” because of the weightage to be given to the Class XII board results.

“Those students who have appeared in the Class XII Board examinations in 2012 and wish to improve upon their performance can appear again for the Board examinations in 2013, arrangements would be made for this,” the minister said. 

In 2015, the process will be reviewed and complete uniformity would be considered, he added.