Common entrance exam for all govt-funded technical institutes

Beginning 2013, there will be a single entrance test for admission to all Union government-funded technical education institutes, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT’s) and the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER’s). With this, the government has formally merged the joint entrance examination (JEE) conducted by the IIT’s and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) held by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

All the 30 National Institutes of Technology (NIT’s), the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT’s) and central technical universities will also adopt this national examination for admitting students. The CBSE will conduct the exam, called the joint entrance examination (JEE), and the IIT’s will design the test papers.

As the sole examination for all technical colleges at the undergraduate level, the JEE is expected to be the largest examination in the country with at least 1.5 million students expected to appear for it in 2013. At present, around 1.1 million take the AIEEE and nearly 500,000 sit for the IIT-JEE. While admitting students, colleges will have to give a weightage of 40 per cent to school board marks and 60 per cent to the national test. Students will get two chances to appear for the exam in the first year (2013) and the best score will be counted while applying for a seat. The test will later be held more than once a year. The All India Council for Technical Education, too, has announced a similar a common central examination for business schools from the coming academic session.