Seat vacancy in the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has reduced this year, with only 18 seats vacant across the 23 institutes after three rounds of admission.
The Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) on Tuesday announced the fourth seat allocation list for admissions to IITs, National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other centrally funded institutes.
“As per the fourth list, 18 new candidates have been allocated seats that are vacant after three rounds of admissions. By the time we finish the seventh round, we hope to have zero vacancies in IITs,” said professor ML Sharma, organising chairman JEE-Advanced 2019, IIT Roorkee.
He added that students have time till July 11 to confirm or withdraw admissions.
While seats have gone vacant in several IITs, the worst-hit are the newer IITs, including IIT Goa and Dharwad. From the older institutes, IIT-Kharagpur seems to be the most affected.
Computer Science still seems to attract the maximum applications whereas most re-allocated seats have either been in the four-year chemical or civil engineering courses or select few dual degree programmes.
“IITs still remain the most sought-after institutes among engineering aspirants and year after year, the demand for the seats remains high. Seat vacancy is a problem many IITs do face but hopefully this year, the situation might be different compared to the past few years,” said an official from IIT-Roorkee.
{{/usCountry}}“IITs still remain the most sought-after institutes among engineering aspirants and year after year, the demand for the seats remains high. Seat vacancy is a problem many IITs do face but hopefully this year, the situation might be different compared to the past few years,” said an official from IIT-Roorkee.
{{/usCountry}}The number of seats going vacant in IITs has been a growing concern for authorities as well as officials from the HRD ministry. While 121 seats remained vacant in 2017, the figure stood at 96 the previous year. Consequently, the ministry asked IITs to consider various ways, including the option of scrapping unpopular courses, to address the issue.