Covid-19: Only six admission rounds to IITs this year, students can report to institute virtually, JoSAA announces | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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Covid-19: Only six admission rounds to IITs this year, students can report to institute virtually, JoSAA announces

Byhreya Bhandary, Mumbai
Sep 30, 2020 12:16 AM IST

Even as aspirants to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are awaiting the release of Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced (JEE-Adv) results on October 5, the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) has already announced few changes to the admission process this year. In a statement released on the official website, JoSAA has stated that there will be only six rounds of seat allotment conducted in 2020 as opposed to seven rounds conducted in the past three years.

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“JoSAA suggested to limit admissions to only six rounds this year to ensure that the admissions process is over before Diwali and that the new academic session starts immediately after,” said professor Siddhartha Pandey, chairman JEE Adv 2020, IIT-Delhi.

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JoSAA conducts admissions to IITs, as well as National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and other government-funded technology institutes (GFTIs).

He added that another major change in the admissions process this year is that students will not be expected to physically report to their allotted institutes to confirm admissions.

“This too was a suggestion by JoSAA, especially keeping in mind the increasing Covid-19 cases. This year students will confirm their admissions by submitting all necessary documents online itself,” added Pandey.

Until 2015, JoSAA conducted three rounds of seat allotment, which was increased to six rounds in 2016 to bring down vacancy of seats in IITs. However, in 2017, 2018 and 2019, seven rounds of admissions were conducted but almost all IITs—old or new—had one or more seats vacant by the end of the common admission rounds. Almost 300 seats had remained vacant after six admission rounds across 23 IITs in 2019 which were reallotted in the seventh and final round.

“Seat allocation rounds are of no importance after the first three rounds because the top courses in top institutes are already full by then. Students are very ambitious and clear about their choice of course and institute and when they know they haven’t managed to bag the seat they want, they end up opting for a private engineering institute closer home,” said a senior professor and former JoSAA member. He added that this trend has been witnessed across IITs over the last five years, and has been one of the biggest reasons for increasing vacancies in the institutes.

Registrations to JoSAA rounds will begin from October 6, a day after the announcement of JEE-Adv results. The first seat allocation list is scheduled to be announced on October 17 this year.

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