Eligibility Criteria for IITs admissions may be reduced

The country's most prestigious institutions, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may reduce the eligibility criteria for admissions to the professional courses.

Meanwhile, the pattern for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) may remain the same for next year.

The central government could consider going easy on the eligibility criteria for admissions.

For any changes in eligibility criteria, consideration would be done by Joint Admission Board (JAB), a conducting body of IITs admissions.

The directors of different IITs will review the percentile system for admission this year, which will finally be ratified at the IIT council meeting scheduled for September 3.

The government had conducted the IIT entrance exam on two methods - JEE (main) and JEE (advanced).

The eligibility criterion was changed from 60% in the board exams, to being in the top 20 percentile of his/her board.

Only the top 1.5 lakh students of JEE (main) were allowed to appear for JEE (advanced) exam - which was the gateway for selection to IITs.

The top 20 percentile cut offs has varied largely across different boards, with some like Andhra board and Tamil Nadu boards having high cut offs of 91.85% and 90.9%, respectively.

Considering the problems that had surfaced with the percentile system this year, a suggestion has been made that all boards whose 20 percentile cut offs are higher than 80 percent, should have a common cut off of 80%.

The proposal may be disapproved as it doesn't take into account different categories like SC/ST and OBC. The JAB may also consider increasing the number of students for JEE(advanced) from 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh.