Class XII score to add 'weight' to IIT -JEE

The government set up a committee to suggest reforms in the IIT entrance examination .Committee was set up under IIT Kharagpur Director Prof. Damodar Acharya to study the existing JEE structure and suggest improvement in it. The committee will submit its report in three months. It is expected to suggest on how to consider the Class XII marks of students while preparing the cut-off for the admission into these 15 elite institutes.The committee will look into the issue of factoring in Class XII examination result in the cut-off for admission into IITs. Currently, 60% is the requirement for appearing for IIT-JEE. Then a cut-off is decided every year for IIT-JEE. Class XII results are being factored to break the stranglehold of coaching centres. In the last meeting of the IIT Council, there was consensus that more weightage be given to the school-leaving examination. Consideration of Class XII marks in the cut-off would ensure that meritorious students get into the IIT stream. The institutes will also suggest how to expand their infrastructure incrementally. A committee under Prof. Anand Krishnan was set up to study this issue and give recommendations. Suggestions were also made to have a structured credit transfer system in the IITs to enable students of IITs to migrate to other institutes. Government asked the IITs to explore setting up a secretariat for their marketing. The government also set up a separate committee under IIT Guwahati Director Prof. Gautam Baruah to suggest improvement in the governance in the IITs.This committee will study the relationship of the IITs with the government and suggest how to have better correlation. Government asked the IITs how they could increase their linkages to school children and with technical institutions and universities. government is planning to set up a Higher Education Funding Corporation, which would provide assistance to poor students. The proposal on fee hike would be discussed after the corporation is set up. IIT Kanpur had prepared a detailed proposal on hiking the tuition fee. At present, B.Tech students are paying Rs 50,000 per year as fee. The proposal suggested increasing the fee to Rs 4 lakh per annum over a period of ten years. At the last meeting of IIT Council, the apex body to decision on IIT issues, discussions were held on giving more weightage to marks obtained in school-leaving examinations while selecting students.