Senate meeting on reforms likely to be held on June 27

The senate of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) is expected to meet on June 27 at a special meeting to discuss the contentious issue of the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) reforms from next year. Reforms, which include using board exam marks in a first level of screening and having a single engineering admission test, were announced by the human resources development ministry last month.

The senate of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) is expected to meet on June 27 at a special meeting to discuss the contentious issue of the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) reforms from next year. Reforms, which include using board exam marks in a first level of screening and having a single engineering admission test, were announced by the human resources development ministry last month.

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The IIT-B senate members will debate and vote on the IIT council’s decision on whether to adopt the reforms after the institute’s director Devang Khakhar gives his final approval for the date. “The meeting will most likely be on June 27. The director had earlier indicated he would be free during this week,” said a faculty member on Tuesday.

IIT-Kanpur had passed a resolution last week, opting for its own admission test following displeasure with the new test format. Next year’s two-step JEE will be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education, not the IITs.

IIT-B, which has yet to make a stand on the issue, had delayed the meeting as the campus was shut for the holidays.

The IIT-B senate had passed a resolution in March, opposing the reforms on various grounds. In May, an internal committee forwarded a proposal to remove board exams from the equation, suggesting a two-stage screening process.

In the mean time, an article, due to appear in the forthcoming issue of scientific journal Current Science, by an IIT-B faculty member has flayed the reforms.

“Institutions should have the freedom to use their own criteria, duly generated from their internal debates and from suitably empowered academic senates or councils, for admission,” writes Anurag Mehra in the Current Science piece.

“The government should therefore refrain from enforcing ideas, such as a “single, national admission test”, that affect institutional academic autonomy and mandates.”

IIT-B director Devang Khakhar denied a date had been set for the meeting and said there was no update on the issue.