In 2015, IIT-Mumbai, the organising institute for JEE-Advanced that year, had lowered the bar after evaluation as an adequate number of aspirants failed to make the cut. But this was done before the declaration of results. (Express photo by Rajesh Stephen/File)
THE INDIAN Institutes of Technology (IITs) met Wednesday to discuss concerns whether there are enough qualified candidates to fill all the seats this year, but decided against tweaking the cut-off marks for JEE-Advanced, for now.
A final decision on the matter, sources said, will be taken only after IIT-Kanpur — the organising institute for JEE-Advanced this year — simulates all possible admission/selection scenarios. The next meeting of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IITs is likely to be held around June 25.
In 2015, IIT-Mumbai, the organising institute for JEE-Advanced that year, had lowered the bar after evaluation as an adequate number of aspirants failed to make the cut. But this was done before the declaration of results.
The institutes, The Indian Express has learnt, are also open to conducting a special round of counselling exclusively for filling up vacant seats. This, if held, will be in addition to the regular six rounds of counselling.
Wednesday’s meeting was called after a few institutes expressed concerns over the number of candidates on the merit list this year.
As reported by The Indian Express on Monday, since 2013, when IIT-JEE was renamed JEE-Advanced and the eligibility criteria for the entrance test was tweaked, the number of candidates who qualified the exam has always been at least twice the number of seats on offer. This year, however, the 18,138 students on the merit list are only 1.6 times the total seats, making it the smallest number of qualified candidates since 2012.
“There are divergent voices on this. Some institutes are worried, while some are confident that 18,000 candidates are enough to fill up all seats. IIT Kanpur will explore all scenarios by simulation different courses of events that can take place with the current pool of candidates,” said a source in the ministry, who did not wish to be identified.