Giving in to the IIT faculty and alumni, the government is understood to be considering accepting some of their demands like not taking plus-two board results into account for preparing the merit list under a new common entrance system for admission to undegraduate engineering courses.
Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal said the autonomy of the IITs is not being challenged and if the IIT Council can come up with a better system then he is willing to listen and change the format.
“I am not bothered about IIT Kanpur. If IITs have a better system I am willing to listen and change,” he replied when asked about IIT Kanpur planning to hold its own entrance test as the institute was in favour of the new format.
Explaining the new test format, he said there will be a two-tier exam to enter IITs – a screening test and an advanced test. The results of the Class 12 board exams will only count for the first tier screening test and not for the advanced test. Sibal said the new format will be applicable from 2013 as decided by the IIT Council.
