IITs agree on new percentile-based admission formula

The IIT Council on Wednesday sought to end the joint entrance examination (JEE) row by fixing a new eligibility criteria for 2013 under which successful candidates would have to be in the top 20 percentile of their respective boards. Vanita Srivastava reports. Plan for 2013

The IIT Council on Wednesday sought to end the joint entrance examination (JEE) row by fixing a new eligibility criteria for 2013 under which successful candidates would have to be in the top 20 percentile of their respective boards.
The formula does away with the existing eligibility criteria of 60% marks in boards.

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Now, candidates will first appear for the JEE (main) screening test, which will filter out the top 1.5 lakh students for the JEE (advanced) test. The final IIT ranking would depend only on the all India rank in JEE (advanced), subject to the successful students meeting the percentile criteria.

The new pattern was agreed upon unanimously by the IIT Council. HRD minister Kapil Sibal, chairman of the council, did not attend the meeting.

The All India IIT Faculty Federation welcomed the new system. “Our main objection to the proposed exam changes was weightage on board marks. With board marks not being included, there should be no problem,” said its secretary Atul Mittal.

IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Barua said the percentile system would encourage students to focus on the boards.