KOLKATA: A JEE rank may not be mandatory for admissions to IIT Kharagpur in the future, as the institute is set to introduce alternative admission pathways apart from the usual JEE Advanced route from the next academic session for its BTech and BS programmes.Authorities pointed out that the move was aimed at attracting students from diverse backgrounds. One of the criteria in the alternative system would be that students must qualify for the JEE Advanced exam, either on the common rank list or category-wise list.“The Senate, in principle, approved that from the next academic session, we will be admitting students through alternate routes without disturbing the primary channel of admission through JEE Advanced. The institute is exploring different possibilities — like Sports Excellence Admission (SEA) and Science Olympiad Excellence Admissions (SCOPE) — as a benchmark of acceptance. But the final modalities are yet to be finalised,” said director Suman Chakraborty. “One of the criteria will be that students must qualify for the JEE Advanced exam, but their ranks should not be a deciding factor,” he added.Chakraborty felt the main purpose of the initiative was to make the admission process inclusive and attract a diverse range of students. Several IITs — like IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Gandhinagar, and IIT Indore — offer admission through Olympiad and sports excellence pathways in addition to the standard JEE route.“A committee will be formed with representatives from each department to fix the modalities and oversee the implementation of this pathway of admission. We will be consulting the protocols of other IITs who have already implemented it,” an IIT Kharagpur official said.A campus source said the eligible Olympiad competitions proposed include International Mathematical Olympiad, International Physics Olympiad, International Chemistry Olympiad, International Biology Olympiad, and International Olympiad in Informatics.“The proposal also includes creating a few supernumerary seats focusing on students excelling in national and international Olympiads. Getting an opportunity to attend the training camp of an Olympiad is itself an impressive achievement and reflects on the academic preparation of the students. The idea is to recognise academic excellence beyond the conventional entrance exams,” an official said.In case of admission through SEA, it has been proposed that candidates must obtain at least one medal in the last four years from sports achievements in any national or international-level competitions, a source said. Some of the eligible competitions proposed include World Championship, Olympics, Commonwealth Championship, SAF Games, Senior National, Federation Cup, All India Inter-University, and Khelo India University Games.
