IITs to conduct seven admission rounds to fill up all seats
Mumbai city news: Last year was the first time when six rounds were conducted instead of the usual two, but 73 of 9,660 seats remained vacant in some of the newer IITs.
To ensure that every seat in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is filled this year, the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) of the IITs will conduct seven rounds of admissions.
Last year, six rounds were conducted instead of the usual two, but 73 of 9,660 seats still remained vacant in some of the newer IITs.
This is the third year that JoSAA is conducting admissions to IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and other government-funded technical institutes.
The 23 IITs across the country have 11,000 seats.
Results of the Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced (JEE-Adv) will be announced on Sunday, June 11. The JoSAA said those students who clear JEE-Adv can start registering and applying to institutes from June 15 to 26. The first round of seat allotment will take place on June 28.
“Most students are very aware of their choice and interests so if they don’t get a seat in the desired department or institute, most don’t mind waiting and applying for IITs next year. So it is common for seats to remain vacant after the
admissions are over,” said a senior professor from IIT-Bombay.
He added that most of vacant seats are in the newer IITs.
A statement released by JoSAA in July last year said 73 (0.76%) of the 9,660 seats at IITs had no takers and of the 912 seats up for grabs at Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, 23 (2.52%) were left vacant for the academic year 2016-17 after six rounds of admissions.
JoSAA also introduced the option for students to withdraw their admissions in 2016 and many IIT officials blamed this for the last-minute vacancies. Figures indicated that several students chose to withdraw their admissions before the
final round and this number kept increasing after every round.
“Let’s hope that seven rounds will give students enough time to make an informed choice and choose an appropriate institute and course,” said an official from JoSAA.