Hindustan Times

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Panel suggests GRE-type test for college admissions

Human resource development minister Kapil Sibal has promised action within 100 days on the Yash Pal committee’s recommendations of sweeping changes in the policy for managing higher education.

Among other things, the panel’s report,submitted to the minister on Wednesday, called for the setting up of an umbrella higher education regulator in place of bodies such as the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education, and for giving university status to IITs and IIMs.

“The report shows a road map for the future of education in India…I believe the nation will accept it,” Sibal said.

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Labels: college admission, education in india, gre, gre type test, higher education, human resource development, IIMs, IITs, panels report, UGC

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Indian Institute of Technology gets tougher: 49 dreams, 1 seat

Getting into an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will be more difficult this year than it was in 2008, even though two new ones will come up by July This yeal: 49 students will compete for one seat, up from the 44 that did so last year.

Last year, 3.11 lakh students took IIT's joint entrance exam for one of 6,992 seats, while this year more than 3.9 lakh (a rise of 25 per cent) will vie for approximately 7,900 seats (a rise of 13 per cent). The exam will be held on April l2.

"Many more students in the Other Backward Class category may be taking the test this year because the seats reserved for them will increase," said Gautam Barua, IIT-Guwahati director, who provided the data.

All IITs must eventually reserve 27 per cent of their seats for this group. The six new IITs that began last year implemented the quota all at once. Two more new IITs coming up in Indore and Himachal Pradesh this year will also do so.

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Labels: IIT, IIT-Guwahati director, IITs, new IITs coming up in Indore and Himachal Pradesh, Other Backward Class category, seats reserved, students

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Indian Institute of Technology open exam process to students

Results of the IIT's Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) - one of the most keenly contested examinations in the country just got more transparent. Taking note of the numerous queries filed under the Right to Information Act (RTI) regarding its admission procedure, IIT Joint Admission Board has decided to release the cut-off scores for individual subjects and different streams on its website.

Applicants can now get to know the cut-off scores in individual subjects like physics, maths or chemistry and also aggregate cut offs for streams like computer, electronics, mechanical and civil engineering. For the 2007 entrance exam, the institute had posted their question papers and correct answers on their site.

The first detailed score sheets will be released on August 1 at 8 pm on the institute's website www.iitg.ernet.in for students who appeared for the 2008 entrance exam. The score sheets will show the opening and closing ranks of different branches for every category, general and reserved.

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Labels: admissions, chemistry, cut-off marks, electronics, entrance exams, graduation, IIT-JEE, IITs, institute, maths, mechanical, physics, procedure, results, RTI, streams, students

Thursday, April 17, 2008

9 percent OBC quota at IITs this year

Seven Branches of IIT will reserve nine percent seats for OBC category students in the 2008-09 academic session, a joint admission board decided in a meeting on Wednesday. Directors of the seven IITs, along with representatives of IT BHU and ISM Dhanbad said that admissions into the JEE 2008 will be done taking into account the reservation for OBC category students.

However, the three new IITs, proposed in Rajasthan, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh will implement 27 per cent reservation. "The new IITs will take in 50 percent general category students and the rest will be from SC, ST and OBC categories. But the existing IITs will implement the entire 27 per cent reservation by 2010," said Prof Surendra Prasad, director, IIT Delhi.

The IITs will have to double the existing strength of faculty in order to cope with the extra students. "At IIT Delhi we have a sanctioned strength of 556 faculty positions and roughly 420 are filled," said Prasad. "If we plan to implement 27 per cent OBC quota by 2010 we will need to double faculty strength in the next two years."

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Labels: 2008-09 academic session, admissions, IITs, JEE 2008, joint admission board, OBC category, OBC quota, reservation, seats, Seven Branches of IIT, students

Friday, April 11, 2008

Scheduled Castes clears Other Backward Classes quota law

Ending uncertainty over the controversial law providing for 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in central educational institutions including IITs and IIMs, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld its validity but ruled that the "creamy layer" among the backwards would not get reservation.

A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan upheld the Central Educational lnstitutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006, paying the way for its implementation in all central educational institutions.

The landmark verdict comes as a major victory for the UPA government, which had to face embarrassment after the court stayed the implementation of the OBC quota law last year.

The bench, also comprising justices Arijit Pasayat, C.K. Thakker, R.V Raveendran and Dalveer Bhandari, unanimously said the "creamy layer" must be excluded from the socially and educationally backward classes as per a 1993 government order The government order excludes wards of people holding constitutional posts and senior government officials from the quota ambit.

Justice Bhandari asked the government to exclude the children of former and present MPs and MLAs from the purview of OBC reservation. The judges, however, clarified that the "creamy layer" concept was not applicable to Scheduled Castes and Schedu1ed Tribes. There should be a periodic review after five years on continuing with the OBC quota, they added.

The bench also upheld the validity of the Constitution (93rd Amendment) Act 2005 that enabled the government to enact laws providing for OBC reservation in central education- al institutions, saying it did not violate the Constitution's basic structure. It also rejected the petitioners' contention that not extending the OBC quota law to minority educational institutions was illegal.

The exclusion of minority educational institutions from the ambit of the law did not violate the Constitution as "they (minority institutions) are a separate class and their rights are protected by other constitutional provisions," the CJI said.

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Labels: 93rd Constitutional Amendment, central universties, cut-off marks, higher education, IIMs, IITs, K.G. Balakrishnan, minority institutions, OBC quota law, reservation, SCs, STs, students