IITs likely to scrap some courses to check fall in admissions

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry, in view of the fall in admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), has asked the latter to take some measures including the option to discontinue unpopular courses.

The IITs are facing increase in number of students refusing admission after counselling. Around 121 seats are vacant out of the 10,998 seats in 23 IITs after seven rounds of counselling. The figure is 25 more than last year.

The issue will be raised at the Joint Admission Board (JAB) meeting on August 20. Less demand of some courses to their value in job market is likely the reason behind it.

There were over 6,000 vacancies in the National Institute of Technology/IIITs and other government-funded technical institutes at the end of the seventh round of counselling.

While admissions have ended in IITs, a special round is being conducted till Sunday to fill up all the vacancies for NITs.

Meanwhile, eligibility criteria for admissions in eight NITs, based in north-eastern states, have been relaxed by the HRD ministry. Under the new criteria, 75% mandatory marks in Class 12 for general and OBC categories have been reduced to 45% in the same categories.

Also, as per the new rule, if any home quota seats are left in NITs, they can be converted into all-India quota.