16,598 seats across IITs, admissions to begin on September 12

Mumbai With admissions to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to start in less than two weeks, the intake capacity across 23 institutes stands at 16,598 this year

Mumbai With admissions to the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to start in less than two weeks, the intake capacity across 23 institutes stands at 16,598 this year.

The official list was released by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) early on Thursday (HT File)

This is 360 seats more than the intake capacity recorded across IITs last year. The official list was released by the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) early on Thursday.

While most old IITs maintained the total seats from last year, the additional seats have been approved in ten of the newer institutes, including, IIT Mandi, Hyderabad, Jodhpur, Patna, Pallakad and Dharwad, among others.

“Most of the older IITs have been asked to ensure zero seat vacancy first, only then opt for increasing seats. Moreover, most of the older IITs have been struggling with space to accommodate their existing students on campus, so increasing the intake capacity is out of bounds,” said an official from IIT Kharagpur, on condition of anonymity. Most new seats have been in the form of new courses added by the newer IITs this year.

Until 2015, JoSAA conducted three rounds of seat allotment, which was increased to six rounds in 2016 in order to avoid seat vacancies in IITs. However, in 2017, 2018 and 2019, seven rounds of admissions were conducted and still almost all IITs—old and 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 re-allotted in the seventh and final rounds.

The Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced (JEE-Adv) was conducted on August 28 this year, and results for the test are expected on September 11. Registrations for admissions to IITs will commence on September 12 and the first seat allotment list is scheduled to be released on September 23 this year.

The organising JEE office on Thursday also released students’ answer booklets on the website. Students can check their responses and will also be allowed to challenge a question, in case of errors.