NITs approve common entrance test for undergrad courses in science, engineering

Updated on: Monday, November 21, 2011

After the IITs, National Institute of Technologies have endorsed a proposal for a single entrance test across the country for admission to undergraduate programmes in science and engineering.

The Central Advisory Board of Education will take a final call before the single entrance aptitude test is put in place by 2013-14 academic session, HRD officials said. The chairpersons and board of governors at the NIT council meeting here today, chaired by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, also agreed for a revised NIT merit award with waiver in tuition fee to all those who are ranked in the top bracket
of the AIEEE examination.

On the issue of a common entrance test, the meeting arrived at a "consensus that the system, which envisages a judicious mix of school performance and the performance at proposed common test, will usher in an alternative admission system which will reduce the multiplicity of tests and dependency on coaching," said a statement issued by the HRD Ministry.

The testing process will be aligned to class XII syllabus. The IIT council, which deliberated the proposal for a common entrance test earlier based on the recommendations of the T Ramasami committee, had decided that weightage of class XII board exam should also be taken into account for admission after including the performance of students appearing in respective board exams.

The NIT council also decided a four-tier flexible system for faculty appointment, as existing in the IIT system, be introduced in NITs. The NIT Council accorded ‘in-principle approval to introduction of revised NIT Merit Award, with tuition fee waiver on graded basis, to all those students who are ranked in the top bracket of the AIEEE examination conducted by CBSE and who took admission in NIT, the statement said.

Besides enlarging the scope of the beneficiaries, it also proposed exclusive scholarships for meritorious SC/ST and OBC students. "It is expected that the revised Merit Award system would be put in place from the academic year 2012-13," the statement added.

NITs approve common entrance test for undergrad courses in science, engineering

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