IIT Kanpur Director denies reports of lowering JEE Advanced 2018 cutoffs

NEW DELHI, JUNE 13: “The result is announced. The cutoff had been declared way before. Whoever has qualified will be eligible for admission. There is no intention of lowering cutoffs or holding any meeting in this regard”, says Prof Abhay Karandikar, IIT Kanpur Director in an interaction with Careers360.

Various news reports are stating that IIT’s were conducting a special meeting to discuss the fall in the number of JEE Advanced qualified candidates. These reports stated that the IITs have expressed concern regarding the fall in number of qualified candidates due to which a meeting of the JAB (Joint Admission Board) had been called to discuss and think of a solution to the possibility of vacant seats.

On contacting IIT Kanpur Director, he refuted the reports and categorically denied these rumors. Clarifying the rumor, the Director added, “For now, we have 1.6 students per seat so we will see what we need to do if and when the situation arises. As of now, I don’t foresee any problem.”

JEE Advanced 2018 was conducted on May 20 where according to the official data, 155158 candidates appeared for the national level engineering entrance exam out of which 18,138 candidates qualified the examination. A total of 11,279 seats will be offered to all the qualified candidates this year inclusive of the 291 seat increase announced. According to data, out of the 18,138 qualified candidates, 8,794 are general, 3,140 are from the OBC category, 4,709 are Scheduled Castes (SC) and 1,495 are Scheduled Tribes (ST).

There is no doubt that number of JEE Advanced qualified candidates is dropping drastically every year, however, according to the authorities right now this is not a concern as the number of candidates who have qualified is higher when compared to the number of seats.

Denying all adverse media reports about chances of vacant seats, IIT Kanpur’s Director said that a clear picture will emerge when counselling starts on June 15 and that action will be taken once the JoSSA counselling commences and seats are allocated to the qualified candidates. “It is too early to discuss this especially when the counselling hasn’t even started, “ said Prof. Abhay. When asked about the spot round in case of vacant seats, he said that it would be decided once the rounds are complete and a stock of the vacant seats if any will be taken.

A firm decision will only be taken after the commencement of JoSSA counselling which is going to be held from June 15. The first round of seat allotment will be announced on June 27 while the last round will be announced on July 18.