IIT admissions: 73 seats still vacant after Round 6

Many students adopted the option of cancelling admissions, introduced by the JEE Advanced council this year.

Despite the move to conduct six rounds of admissions, there were no takers for 73 seats at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) this year. According to a report released by the JEE Advanced council on Saturday, 0.76% of the 9,660 seats stayed vacant.

This year, both IIT-B and IIT-Delhi do not have a single seat vacant. (HT File Photo)

Last year, 341 seats stayed vacant. This was one of the main reasons why the JEE Advanced council increased this year’s admission rounds from two to six.

While experts assumed that newer IITs would see higher vacancies, 38 of 1,090 seats at IIT (BHU) in Varanasi — one of the older institutes — were empty. IIT-Kharagpur had seven unclaimed seats and newer IITs such IIT-Palakkad and Jammu, have five empty seats each. The Indian School of Mining in Dhanbad had 2.52% vacant seats.

“If students don’t get the IIT of their choice, many opt for engineering institutes closer to home,” said a professor from IIT-Bombay.

This year, both IIT-B and IIT-Delhi do not have a single seat vacant. IITs in Kanpur, Mandi, Hyderabad and Goa have zero vacancy.

Many students adopted the option of cancelling admissions, introduced by the JEE Advanced council this year. At the end of Round five, 293 students withdrew their admissions, which were allotted to new applicants. However, only 201of those seats were taken till July 20.