JEE Advanced 2021: Information brochure out, exam and admission rules tweaked

Even as engineering aspirants are waiting for clarity regarding dates for the pending Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Mains rounds, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur released the information brochure for JEE-Advanced 2021 this week. While most rules remain the same, the organising institute has tweaked some eligibility and admission rules keeping the pandemic in mind.

JEE Advanced 2021:

For starters, students who cleared JEE Mains in 2020 and could not appear for both the JEE-Advance papers last year due to Covid-related issues, will be allowed to register directly for the JEE-Advanced 2021 exam. "This is a one-time measure valid only for JEE-Adv 2021. These candidates will be considered in addition to and not as part of the total number of candidates who would qualify from JEE-Mains 2021 for appearing in JEE-Adv 2021," states the information brochure.

Until now, an aspirant had to score 75% or more in the class 12 board exams in order to be eligible for JEE-Adv but this year, the criteria has been tweaked considering the fact that all school education boards in the country scrapped class 12 exams this year. "Candidates should have appeared and cleared their class 12 exams and should be among the top 2.5 lakh successful candidates including all categories in JEE-Mains 2021," highlights the brochure.

Another change has been introduced to the female quota seats across IITs this year. Unlike last three years when a uniform quota of supernumerary seats were allotted to female candidates across IITs, in 2021-22, this quota will differ from one institute to another. "The number of supernumerary seats in various programs will be decided by individual IITs ensuring that every institute has at least 20% female enrolment in undergraduate programs."

In 2017, intake of girls in B Tech programmes at IITs was a mere 9.3%. In 2018, the IIT admissions council decided to introduce supernumerary seats, implying new seats created in addition to existing seats, for female students with the addition of 800 (14%) seats across 23 IITs in 2018 while the number stood at 946 (17%) female only seats across IITs in 2019 and at least 20% of the undergraduate class by 2020.

"This specific change in admission rules has been introduced considering that several IITs have already managed to surpass the 20% quota. So this year, IITs that have managed to admit 20% or more female students in certain programs can reduce the intake for those particular courses whereas those where the criteria still has to be met, the intake quota of supernumerary seats can be increased by individual institutes," said a senior professor from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

Since dates for JEE-Mains are yet to be released by the National Testing Agency (NTA), no information on the schedule of JEE-Adv 2021 has been revealed in the information brochure. "Exam dates will be announced soon," states the information brochure.

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