The IIT-Delhi, which is organizing IIT-JEE 2012, has invited all IIT directors for a workshop on Friday, where an online model will be demonstrated. The JEE office is hosting the workshop. Sources from IIT-Delhi have confirmed that Education Testing Services (ETS), which conducts the GRE and several other popular global online examinations, will make a presentation at the workshop.

Most officials on record denied plans to go online with JEE. A senior official from one of the IITs claimed that the workshop was scheduled to discuss the possibilities of an online examination for JEE. “We might just discuss the feasibility. No decision has been taken,” said the official.

A senior IIT-B professor said, “An online exam may or may not work for JEE. While CAT faced teething problems initially, it is stabilized now. For an exam, where you need to calculate a lot, pen and paper seems to be a better option. But students these days are well versed with technology and in future, everything might be computerized.”

Currently, only two directors have responded to the invitation, claimed an official from IIT-Delhi. “Experts from ETS will make a presentation and showcase their testing systems. It is a successful testing pattern in the US. But there will not be any overnight decision on JEE going online,” said the official.

The fee structure decided by the Council, the highest decision-making body of the IITs, is complex. While all students at the time of admission will pay the existing fee, after they pass out 25% of students (other than SCs/STs/OBCs) who can afford the hike of Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh suggested by Anil Kakodkar committee, would be made to pay the amount to their institutions in easy installments.

As to how it would be implemented, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said employers would pay to the IIT. Asked how this would be ensured, Sibal said under the proposed law that would allow dematerialisation of certificates in electronic format, employers would cross-check the validity of certificates from government and then they would be told to pay a part of salary directly to the institute.

But there were no clear answers to other questions: What happens to a student who starts his own business? What happens to students who join a foreign firm in a foreign country? One official asserted that the students would have to sign a bond at the time of admission.

Sibal said the payback by 25% students would not apply if he joins M.Tech and subsequently Ph.D. He would be charged only after he joins a firm. Exception would also be given to students who after Ph.D join the IIT faculty. Reason: There is a dearth of good faculty in IITs. But, Sibal said, the entire formulation on fee has to meet the approval of finance ministry.

As for the common entrance test, what has been decided by the T Ramaswami committee is a new kind of Joint Entrance Examination where weightage would be given to class XII marks of students and a Scholastic Aptitude Test-kind of test. In fact, the committee has given various options and no final decision has been taken on which option will be adopted. Again, as Sibal said it had not been decided how much weightage would be given to class XII marks and the SAT-like test. The marks scored by students in class XII would be `normalized’ through a formula devised by experts of the Indian Statistical Institute. But the experts favoured the normalization system after doing a pilot study of only four out of 42 boards in the country. They studied the result patterns of CBSE, ISE, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Boards.

It also needs to be pointed out that normalization as a method has been abandoned by BITS, Pilani, and even in the USA. Last year, when a committee on JEE reforms under D Acharya, director of IIT, Kharagpur, suggested normalization it was opposed by many state boards.

The council, a governing body responsible for all the IITs, took a look at a proposal to indirectly hike theannual fee of a general category student from Rs.50,000 to Rs.2 lakh.

“The expenditure on one student in IIT is Rs.7-8 lakh, whereas the fee is Rs.50,000,”Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said after the meeting.

“We said the fee cannot be hiked, but under the new system discussed, the student will pay the same fee at the time of admission. When they start working, the rest of their fee will be paid in installments from their salaries,” the minister said.

The student will, however, be exempted if he or she goes for higher education, Masters or Ph.D., or takes up academics and teaching.

“The immediate difference of fee will be borne by the government. If a student has any gainful employment, he will have to pay back the difference in installments,” Sibal said.

Students from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and from the non-creamy layer of other backward category will be exempted from the fee hike.

“According to the calculations, only 25 percent of the students will be affected by this,” Sibal said.

The minister added that a final decision will be taken after consultation with states.

The council also agreed in principle to hold a common entrance test for engineering colleges.

“There are two aims behind holding a common entrance test. First, to reduce the burden on children for giving multiple entrance test, and, second, to maintain the diversity of India inside the IITs,” Sibal said.

“Presently only those who can afford coaching for entrance exams are going to the IITs,” he said.

Under the new system suggested, weightage would be given to the marks obtained by a student in Class 12 examinations.

Sibal, however, added that whether the colleges under state government will be included or not under the system would be decided only after a meeting with state governments.

“The Indian Statistics Institute has arrived at a formula for equalising marks in all boards. If one board gives 90 percent as highest marks, and the other gives 75 percent, the marks will be equalized on the basis of a formula,” Sibal said.

Producing more research scholars was one of the key issues taken up during the meeting, with the council deciding to enhance the capacity of IITs to produce 10,000 Ph.D. graduates annually from around 1,000 presently and increase faculty strengthfrom around 4,000 presently to 16,000 by 2020.

The fee structure decided by the Council, the highest decision-making body of the IITs, is complex. While all students at the time of admission will pay the existing fee, after they pass out 25% of students (other than SCs/STs/OBCs) who can afford the hike of Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh suggested by Anil Kakodkar committee, would be made to pay the amount to their institutions in easy installments.

As to how it would be implemented, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said employers would pay to the IIT. Asked how this would be ensured, Sibal said under the proposed law that would allow dematerialisation of certificates in electronic format, employers would cross-check the validity of certificates from government and then they would be told to pay a part of salary directly to the institute.

But there were no clear answers to other questions: What happens to a student who starts his own business? What happens to students who join a foreign firm in a foreign country? One official asserted that the students would have to sign a bond at the time of admission.

Sibal said the payback by 25% students would not apply if he joins M.Tech and subsequently Ph.D. He would be charged only after he joins a firm. Exception would also be given to students who after Ph.D join the IIT faculty. Reason: There is a dearth of good faculty in IITs. But, Sibal said, the entire formulation on fee has to meet the approval of finance ministry.

As for the common entrance test, what has been decided by the T Ramaswami committee is a new kind of Joint Entrance Examination where weightage would be given to class XII marks of students and a Scholastic Aptitude Test-kind of test. In fact, the committee has given various options and no final decision has been taken on which option will be adopted. Again, as Sibal said it had not been decided how much weightage would be given to class XII marks and the SAT-like test. The marks scored by students in class XII would be `normalized’ through a formula devised by experts of the Indian Statistical Institute. But the experts favoured the normalization system after doing a pilot study of only four out of 42 boards in the country. They studied the result patterns of CBSE, ISE, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Boards.

It also needs to be pointed out that normalization as a method has been abandoned by BITS, Pilani, and even in the USA. Last year, when a committee on JEE reforms under D Acharya, director of IIT, Kharagpur, suggested normalization it was opposed by many state boards.

This move comes closely after the statement by the All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) chairman, S.S. Mantha that there should be only one entrance exam for all MBA aspirants. While the HRD ministry, in a press release, said that it would not be possible to have one exam for all management programmes, this move by the IITs is expected to ease pressure on students, say academics.

For the last four years, the IITs were accepting both the CAT and JMET scores. “There was a large number of students who took both the examinations. There is very little difference between the pattern of the two examinations, as both focus on assessing the aptitude of students,” says Prof. L.S. Ganesh, Department of Management Studies, IIT-Madras.

The quantitative section of the JMET is, however, considered to be more aligned to mathematics. “It is a myth that the JMET is taken only by engineering graduates. IITs require the applicant to have completed four years of any graduation programme,” said Mr. Ganesh. The IITs will continue to lay emphasis on the section-wise score of applicants, rather than the percentile scores. “Even a small difference of 0.25 marks in every section will make a difference in the selection process, which is not effectively reflected in the percentile scores,” says Mr. Ganesh.

This move comes closely after the statement by the All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) chairman, S.S. Mantha that there should be only one entrance exam for all MBA aspirants. While the HRD ministry, in a press release, said that it would not be possible to have one exam for all management programmes, this move by the IITs is expected to ease pressure on students, say academics.

For the last four years, the IITs were accepting both the CAT and JMET scores. “There was a large number of students who took both the examinations. There is very little difference between the pattern of the two examinations, as both focus on assessing the aptitude of students,” says Prof. L.S. Ganesh, Department of Management Studies, IIT-Madras.

The quantitative section of the JMET is, however, considered to be more aligned to mathematics. “It is a myth that the JMET is taken only by engineering graduates. IITs require the applicant to have completed four years of any graduation programme,” said Mr. Ganesh. The IITs will continue to lay emphasis on the section-wise score of applicants, rather than the percentile scores. “Even a small difference of 0.25 marks in every section will make a difference in the selection process, which is not effectively reflected in the percentile scores,” says Mr. Ganesh.

Two seats for SCs and 27 seats for STs remained vacant as the candidates could not secure 40 per cent marks in the Joint Entrance test, the minimum requirement for admission to any medical college as per the guideline laid down by Medical council of India (MCI), the sources said today.

Tripura Higher Education Minister Anil Sarkar said to resolve the standoff over admission in reserved seats in AGMC, a fresh Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) on PCB group will now be conducted by September 24.

Sarkar said ST/SC students who had secured 40 percent marks in this year’s Higher Secondary (+2) examinations would be allowed to appear in the fresh JEE.

“The all-party meeting, which met today following request from the council of ministers, was in favour of holding fresh JEE on PCB group for ST/SC students”, he said.

Earlier, the all-party meeting decided to review the results of this year’s Joint Entrance Examinations. But the Council of Ministers had discussed various options yesterday to get over the impasse and referred the matter to the all-party committee.

Sarkar said that the last decision of all-party committee would be conveyed to the Medical Council of India (MCI) very shortly.

The government was in favour of completing the admission process by September 30, a day before the last scheduled time for admission to MBBS course.

From 2012, applicants would also be allowed to carry a copy of optic response sheet on which answers are inscribed immediately after the examination. Also, answers can be circled by pen, instead of pencil as is being done now. These decisions were taken on Friday by the IIT joint admission board (JAB). Next year’s JEE would be conducted by IIT-Delhi. IITs had initiated reforms in small measures from last year. For instance, answers were put out by the JAB before the results came out. However, it was done 35 days after the test. Also, the scanned copies of optic response sheet of candidates were put on JAB website after the result. But errors, worth 30 marks, were also pointed out.

IITs could feel fresh heat on carrying out more reforms as the Supreme Court has set aside theDelhi High Court order that dismissed a PIL by Rajeev Kumar of IIT-Kharagpur. HC had said Kumar does not have the locus standi to demand reforms in JEE. However, last week a SC bench of Justice G S Singhvi said, “The High Court was not justified in non-suiting the appellant on the ground of lack of locus without even adverting to the averments made by him that he was a professor in the Indian Institute of Technology- Kharagpur, that his son and daughter had appeared in the Joint Entrance Examinations conducted in 2006 and 2010 respectively and that he was interested in ensuring that the Joint Entrance Examination is conducted in a transparent and fair manner so that meritorious students may not suffer.” The matter has since gone back to the Delhi HC.

In his PIL, Kumar had demanded that JAB should release model answers along with solutions immediately after the examination. He also wanted an investigation into the irregularities, tampering and fraud in the conduct of JEE and in granting admissions in IITs. Kumar had also prayed for setting up of a committee of independent experts to prescribe a rational system for determination of subject cut-offs and for eliminating other discrepancies and irregularities.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on Thursday, Prof V. G. Idichandy, deputy director, IIT-M, said the Union government had asked Dr T. Ramasami, secretary, ministry of science and technology, to evolve modalities for conducting a single entrance test for admitting students to all higher education institutions in the country.

But then, some IIT administrators have been demanding that the IITs be allowed to hold a separate joint entrance examination (JEE) “so that we can get the top one lakh students who clear the CET”, Prof Idichandy said.

He said, “About 15 lakh students may take the CET but if a student wants to join IIT, he needs to be one among the top one lakh who clear the test and he may be asked to sit again for JEE as we want to admit only the best students.

IITs are special and we serve as centres of excellence, so we want to conduct our own entrance examination. But ultimately everything rests with the IIT council which governs all IITs”.

He however admitted that the IITians were divided in conducting a separate entrance test for IITs.

Source : Deccan Chronicle

MODIFIED SCHEDULE FOR SEAT ALLOTMENT TO INCLUDE A THIRD ROUND OF SEAT ALLOTMENT

Minimum Qualifying Mark for Ranking (MQMR) and Aggregate Cut-off : JEE-2010

Aggregate Total of Different Categories (500th for GE and 100th for OBC /SC/ ST/ PD) : JEE-2010

Marks of the first ranked candidate in JEE 2010 merit list

Marks of the last ranked candidate in JEE 2010 merit list