367 - IIT admission board meets today amid exam angst - Indian Express

IIT admission board meets today amid exam angst

Kiritika Suneja : New Delhi, Sat Jun 23 2012, 01:22 hrs

The cloud of uncertainty over admissions to the elite Indian Institutes of Technology has thickened. In the backdrop of two leading IITs – Kanpur and Delhi – opposing the common entrance exam proposed by the government and two more seen joining their ranks, the IIT joint admission board (JAB) meets in the capital on Saturday to discuss the way forward. The development is crucial because it is the JAB which conducts the IIT joint entrance exams.

The meeting also gains significance because sources said IIT Bombay and Kharagpur too may shortly join Kanpur and Delhi.

On Thursday, IIT-Delhi rejected the single entrance test proposal, deciding to conduct its own entrance exam from next year, following in the footsteps of IIT-Kanpur.

The crisis brewing in the government over the matter can also be gauged by the fact that a meeting of the IIT council, the apex government-nominated body which has decided on holding common entrance tests, is also scheduled on June 27.

“The uncertainty faced by the student community, consequent to the resolutions of the senates of IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi, requires to be addressed. 

Consequently, a special meeting of the IIT council is being convened on June 27,” the human resource ministry said in a statement.

The IIT council is headed by the HRD minister and includes directors of the seven old IITs. The directors also head the senate bodies of their respective institutions. The senates, as per IIT Act of 1961, are the highest decision-making bodies on all academic matters of the IITs. The council only holds an advisory role.

The HRD ministry, however takes a different view, pointing to an ordinance which states that the council is supreme in matters like holding entrance examinations.

The senate's role, on the other hand, comes only in matters relating to courses and examinations within IITs – which means, examinations after the students have entered the institutes through the entrance exams.

Sources said that 130 deemed universities having engineering colleges currently not under the common entrance exam plan may also be brought in. In that case, there could be opposition from these universities also.

“Any such move would be detrimental to our autonomy and we will oppose it. The government must consider the issues of the private sector and deemed universities before taking any drastic policy decision like in the case of management programmes last year and the common entrance test for technical institutes this year,” said H Chaturvedi, alternate president, Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI), an association of technical and management institutes.

Deemed universities like VIT Vellore, BITS Pilani, Thapar University and Manipal University conduct their own engineering entrance exams. Whether the entrance exam for the deemed universities would be different from the CET for IITs will be clear early next week when HRD minister Kapil Sibal meets them.

“We have rejected the IIT council's proposal and will conduct an entrance exam similar to the one in 2012 because we are worried about the students. No drastic changes will be done and we are joining hands with like-minded IITs. It is not the IITs' concern to follow political mandates,” IIT Faculty Federation president Sanjeev Sanghi told FE.

According to senate members, the council can only advise the IITs and the senate has the right not to join the exam.

“The IITs will not cater to political whims and fancies of introducing the CET from 2013 as general elections are set to be held in 2014,” Sanghi added.

365 - IIT directors discuss compromise formula

IIT directors discuss compromise formula Published: Saturday, Jun 23, 2012, 20:41 IST  Place: New Delhi | Agency: PTI Ahead of next week's meeting called by the government on the single entrance exam row, Indian Institute of technology (IIT) directors on Saturday discussed a compromise formula which includes a proposal to take top 20-30 students based on percentile ranking of respective boards for preparing the merit list. Indications are that the percentile criterion replacing the proposed format of giving weightage to board results were deliberated at the Joint Admission Board (JAB) meeting, comprising IIT directors, as an alternative, possibly drawing a near unanimity. The proposal is believed to have been mooted by the HRD Ministry and floated among the directors to end the impasse. The percentile criterion along with performance in the JEE-Main will be used for selecting around 50,000 students and their score at the advanced test conducted by IITs will be taken into account to prepare the merit list for admission to IITs. IIT senates are expected to deliberate on this after its approval at the IIT council meet. The JAB has been conducting the IIT entrance test for 50 years. The meeting also evaluated the conduct of IIT-JEE 2012. Insiders also suggested that some directors were averse to discussing the proposed test at the JAB and insisted that issue be deliberated only at the special IIT council meet. The IIT council, the highest decision-making body headed by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal includes Directors of all the 16 IITs, heads of educational bodies like UGC and AICTE among others. On the other hand, the IIT faculty federation, in a statement, appreciated the council meeting called by Sibal and hoped for an amicable solution to emerge. "We appreciate that the minister has called IIT Council meeting on June 27, 2012 to address the concerns of IIT community. Through this process of discussion and engagement, we are confident that an amicable solution will emerge that would be acceptable to all, without compromising on the IITs autonomy." The JAB meeting today came in the backdrop of IIT Delhi and Kanpur rejecting the government proposal and deciding to have a separate exam. There are indications that IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur may follow their Delhi and Kanpur counterparts. The IIT Council on June 23 will discuss the situation created by the divisions among the elite educational institutions by the government proposal and the future course of action to end uncertainty among the student community.

362 - CET row: HRD Ministry to meet IIT Council - Newswala

CET row: HRD Ministry to meet IIT Council

New Delhi, June 22 (IBNS): The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has called a special meeting of Indian Institute of Technologies (IIT) Council on combined entrance test (CET) on June 27.

"The uncertainty faced by the student community, consequent to the resolutions of the senates of IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi, requires to be addressed. Consequently, a special meeting of the IIT Council is being convened on 27.6.2012," read a ministry statement on Friday. 

Earlier Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said the government has no intentions to 'impact' on the autonomy of the IITs. 

Sibal faced tremendous criticisms and oppositions from the IIT Kanpur and others after he announced the decision to conduct combined entrance test for IITs with other premier engineering institutes.

IIT Kanpur has said it will conduct its own entrance test from 2013, rejecting a proposal by Sibal to unify such tests across India.

Earlier, IIT Faculty Federation, with the support of the powerful Alumni Association, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh strongly opposing the move.

The IIT Alumni Association also reportedly said it is contemplating taking the minister to court for allegedly violating the principles of the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961.

IIT Faculty Federation secretary A.K. Mittal, in the letter to the PM had said, "We feel cheated. Despite promising us that no steps will be taken if there is any dissent, the HRD minister has gone ahead with his plans." 

2012-06-22 

361 - HRD Ministry calls a special meeting of IIT Council - Yahoo News

HRD Ministry calls a special meeting of IIT Council

By ANI | ANI – Fri, Jun 22, 2012

New Delhi, June 22 (ANI): The Human Resource and Development (HRD) Ministry has called for a special meeting of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Council on June 27.

"The uncertainty faced by the student community, consequent to the resolutions of the senates of IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi, requires to be addressed. Consequently, a special meeting of the IIT Council is being convened on 27.6.2012," said a HRD Ministry release.

Rejecting HRD Minister Kapil Sibal's single entrance test proposal, IIT-Delhi has decided to conduct its own entrance exam from next year, following in the footsteps of IIT-Kanpur.

Prof. Atul Kumar Mittal of Civil Engineering Department at IIT earlier on Thursday termed the Centre's policy as an impeachment on the autonomy of IITs across the country.

"The main reasons are whatever resolution has been adopted by the IIT Delhi Senate on May 2, those resolutions have been rejected by the IIT Council in their meeting on May 12 and 28 May, which we felt is not correct and that is why IIT Delhi Senate rightly has rejected the Council's proposal and IIT Delhi's Senate feels that it is an impeachment on our autonomy," said Prof. Mittal.

"So, it is a broader issue of the autonomy of our IIT system. And then we say what is the way forward, the way forward is that IIT will conduct its own exam, so we have decided that we will conduct our own exam," he added.

Prof. Sanjeev Sangrini, also of IIT Delhi, on his part said that the proposal of the government was an illogical decision as such the IITs would conduct their examinations similar to the previous years.

"So the Senate decided that enough is enough; whatever proposals we had put through, they were not acceded, whatever we had said and the proposal, which came, was a half way proposal, which had a lot of difficulties in implementation and the worse part was that there was insistence that this should be put into effect to 2013; we believe that if this would have been put into effect from 2013 then there would have been lot of problems, when the decision would have been implemented. Also it was an unsound decision," said Prof. Sangrini.

"So, we decided we will not abide by that and what we have done is that we will conduct our exam similar to the exam last time. Now for children who may be confused that how many exams they will have to give, we have also decided that we will get in touch with other IITs, who would not like to follow the Council's resolution and we will join hands with them and have an exam together with them," he added.

IIT Kanpur had early this month rejected the proposed test terming it 'academically and methodically unsound'.

The government had on May 28 announced the new test from 2013, under which aspiring candidates for IITs and other central institutes like NITs and IIITs will have to sit under new a format of common entrance test, which will also take plus two board results into consideration. (ANI)

356 - Joint admission board of IITs to meet tomorrow The writer has posted comments on this articleTNN | Jun 22, 2012, 01.48AM IST

Joint admission board of IITs to meet tomorrowThe writer has posted comments on this articleTNN | Jun 22, 2012, 01.48AM IST

KANPUR: The IIT Council, on the instructions of HRD ministry, had convened a meeting of joint admission board (JAB) to discuss the future course of the advanced joint entrance exam ( AJEE) to be conducted in 2013. The meeting would be attended by the directors of all the IITs scheduled to be held in Delhi on June 23. IIT-Kanpur director S G Dhande would attend the meeting.

This development has taken place at a time when the IIT-Kanpur has decided to conduct its own entrance examination and not to participate in the common engineering test or the advanced JEE. The HRD ministry is keen on implementing the CET from 2013. But with objections raised by the IITs, it is ready to make some changes. During the meeting, the preparations regarding the CET would be discussed. The anger of the faculty members of the IIT-Kanpur had surfaced. The faculty members are annoyed that the JAB meeting has been called to discuss about the preparations about the advanced JEE. The teachers would meet Dhande on Thursday and ask him to put forth the institute's decision of conducting its own entrance examination.

"We would also be asking Dhande to keep IIT-K's view that it is too early to implement CET from 2013. Therefore, the HRD and the IIT Council should not bring about a change in the entrance examination before 2014," said a members of the faculty forum. The institute is in contact with other IITs on the issue and it is expected that IIT-Delhi, Bombay, Kharagpur and Roorkee would be following IITKanpur in not participating in CET.

341 - IIT entrance test row: Kapil Sibal refuses to budge from 2013 date - TOI

IIT entrance test row: Kapil Sibal refuses to budge from 2013 date

NEW DELHI: With IIT-Delhi Senate scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss its response to the common entrance test human resource development minister Kapil Sibal reiterated that the exam for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) would be implemented from next year. 

In an interview, Sibal referred to the IIT system and said, "The excellence of the system is the quality of the system. I also give great credit to the faculty. It's the quality of the students...because best students come to the IITs and the best students will still come. So there is not dilution of the quality. But there are certain ills in the present system that needs to be addressed. The IITs should have come out with solutions in these 40 years. They can't claim whatever they are doing, there is nothing better than that." 

Sibal's insistence, however, seems to be contrary to the assurance offered by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a meeting with IIT faculty recently that differences will be sorted out through a dialogue and the autonomy of the tech schools will not be eroded. 

IIT-Kanpur had recently decided to conduct its own entrance test, terming as "academically and methodically unsound" the May 28 decision of the IIT Council to hold the common entrance test. This makes the meeting of the IIT-Delhi Senate significant. If IIT-Delhi chooses to back Kanpur faculty members, the ministry will have to seriously reconsider at least some aspects of the current formula. 

Sources said that among some of the suggestions that had been discussed included holding the IIT main and advanced test on separate days and the way in which class XII board marks will be factored in. 

A section of the IIT faculty and the alumni have been opposing the move tooth and nail, demanding that the new system should not be implemented before 2014. They contend implementing the new system from next academic session will put a lot of pressure on students, who are already in midst of preparing for next year's IIT-JEE. 

The government is likely to ask the joint admission board of the IITs soon to prepare the modalities for conducting the advanced test under the proposed common entrance test. Sources also said that the Senates of IIT-Bombay, IIT-Madras and IIT-Kharagpur held internal meetings about the proposed exam and possible alternatives in the two-tier test. 

When asked if he was reconsidering his decision to hold the test from 2013 onwards, Sibal said, "This is not my decision (on holding the single entrance test). This is a decision of the IIT council which is a statutory authority under the IIT Act. The IITs have by and large accepted this decision.'' 

Sibal said the only opposition was coming from IIT-Kanpur Senate but noted that he was ready to reach out to all to resolve the differences. "I will reach out to all of them. I will talk to them. For the first time in the history of this country, I had personal interaction with faculty of all the IIT," he said. 

As per the new format for admission to IITs and institutes such as NITs and IIITs, students will sit for a main test and an advance test. Performance of the plus-two board results will also be taken into consideration. So far, IIT-Guwahati and IIT-Madras have expressed their full support to the new test. 

Stating that the single test was proposed to address certain "ills in the implementation of the present system, Sibal said he would welcome the IIT council to come over with a better solution. 

Observing that that declining standard of school system has led to a plethora of coaching institutes, Sibal said of the 476 students admitted to IIT-Bombay, 300 have come from coaching institutes. He also felt that the common entrance test will do away with capitation fee.

TNN | Jun 21, 2012, 12.00AM IST

331 - Government to roll out new look Joint Entrance Examination by 2013 - ECONOMIC TIMES

20 JUN, 2012, 06.17AM IST, URMI GOSWAMI,ET BUREAU 

Government to roll out new look Joint Entrance Examination by 2013

NEW DELHI: Protests by the IIT faculty, and at least one IIT Senate, against the new common entrance examination system notwithstanding, the government is going ahead with preparations to roll out the new look Joint Entrance Examination by 2013. 

The human resource development ministry is writing to the Joint Admission Board, which is currently headed by IIT Delhi, to begin the consultation process to decide on the "nature, modalities, and timing" of the JEE-Advanced examination. 

The JEE-Advanced is the second part of the two-step common admission test that was agreed to by the IIT Council at the May 28 meeting. Performance in the JEE-Advanced test will be the only criteria, which will be considered for admission to the IITs. As agreed by the IIT Council, performance in the class XII Board examination and JEE-Main will be used like a screening process to shortlist candidates. 

The ministry is asking the Joint Admission Board to work out whether they want the test to be an objective or subjective test, the level of control the IIT system wants to retain over administering the test and the level of administrative support required from the CBSE. The Board will also decide on the timing of the test, whether it should be on the same day as the JEE-Main or not. The IITs would like the two exams -JEE Main and Advanced-to be held on separate days. 

As far as the ministry is concerned the May 28 decision of joint meeting of the IIT, NIT and IIIT Councils is final, and asking the Board to being work on the examination is the logical next step. The groups to deal with academic issues, and interface have already been set up. Sources said that there hasn't been any communication from the Prime Minister's Office on the new system. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured the IIT Faculty Federation that he would speak with the human resource development minister Kapil Sibal about the objections and concerns raised by them.

329 - HRD to tell board to begin work on new JEE format - INDIAN EXPRESS

HRD to tell board to begin work on new JEE format

Anubhuti Vishnoi : New Delhi, Wed Jun 20 2012, 00:34 hrs

Unfazed by the opposition mounting against the new JEE format in the IIT community, the Human Resource Development Ministry has begun moving to take the proposed common entrance exam forward.

Kapil Sibal’s ministry will write to the IIT Joint Admission Board (JAB) to prepare for the JEE Advanced Test and start working out the finer points related to it, highly placed sources told The Indian Express. JEE Advanced is the exam under the proposed new common entrance format that will determine the final merit list for IIT admissions.

Since IIT Delhi is currently handling the JAB position, the ministry will send a communication, asking them to define the “nature, modalities and timing” of the exam. The ministry is of the opinion that it must be left to the IITs to decide whether they want a subjective/objective JEE Advanced, the nature of questions to be put, when and how often the exam should be conducted, whether or not they would like collaboration with CBSE for administrative assistance or even whether they would like to engage a testing agency to conduct the exam.

The ministry has already set up groups/committees to handle academic, administrative and test delivery aspects among other areas related to holding the common entrance exam.

Sibal, who chairs the IIT Council, had announced on May 28 that starting 2013, a new common entrance exam format for admission to IITs, NITs, IIITs and other centrally funded technical institutes would come into effect. According to this format, Class XII board marks will be factored in for determining eligibility of a student aspiring for admission to an IIT.

The new JEE will have two components — JEE Main (for screening) and JEE Advanced (for the final IIT merit list) — with 50 per cent weightage to Class XII scores at the screening stage.

The proposal is being opposed by the IIT Senates and alumni. IIT Kanpur Senate has gone as far as to pass a resolution saying that they would boycott the 2013 common entrance exam and instead hold their own JEE.

Members of the All India IIT Faculty Federation also met the Prime Minister last week on the issue and were assured that the autonomy of IITs would not be compromised. The federation raised three specific demands as well — that no change should be effected in JEE 2013 and the present system should continue, that Senates of IITs be allowed to take decision on admission in IITs to ensure the academic autonomy of the IITs and consideration of board marks from 2014 to be worked out over a period of time after analysing the board data and results from the dry run.

325 - IIT-K mulls judicial options - Daily Pioneer

   IIT-K mulls judicial options

Saturday, 16 June 2012 23:29

Deepak Kumar Jha | New Delhi

Despite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance of intervening in the row over the process for qualifying to the coveted Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Kanpur is exploring legal options to be able to conduct an entrance test on its own.

Sources in the IIT-K senate said that the council of IITs can only advice the Academic senate which is not binding on the senates, and according to legal opinions, they can still go ahead with the Joint Entrance Examination.

The IIT-K Senate has already sent their dissent note in writing to the chairman of IITs Council, HRD Ministry and chairman of the Board of Governors, IIT Kanpur.

“The recommendation process is in contradiction of the stand of Senate as represented by its chairman in the council meeting held on May 12, 2012.

Consequently, the senate resolves to record its forceful dissent of the council resolution related to JEE,” said Sanjay G Dhande, director, IIT-K and chairman of the Senate, in his Dissent Note to stakeholders.

“They wanted us to put the Dissent Note in writing and we have done so. Furthermore, legal opinion has been sought and in any case, the decision of either the HRD Ministry or council of IITs is not binding on the senates which clearly means even if the Government is not serious in revoking its order, the Kanpur IIT will go ahead and conduct an independent entrance test,” a senior senator at IIT Kanpur said over phone.

The IIT Delhi Alumni Association has already threatened that if the Centre does not change the proposed pattern, they would take the battle to court.
IIT Delhi’s Regular Senate Meeting has been convened for June 21, however, sources said that as of now, the agenda meeting does not include discussion on a separate IIT Entrance test as announced by IITK. “The Delhi IIT was perhaps anticipating that the meeting with PM might bring some surprises and that is why the JEE has, as of now, not been included in the agenda. If it is not included, then the decision to ratify the Kanpur senate opinion may be taken in a Special Senate Meeting that can be called any day,” a Delhi IIT senator said, requesting anonymity. Bombay IIT’s Special Senate Meeting is scheduled for June 27.

Meanwhile, the minutes of JEE available with The Pioneer, has clearly pointed that all Academic Senates except IIT Guwahati in a meeting with the HRD Minister Kapil Sibal on May 12, 2012 opined that there should not be any changes in the examination pattern till 2013. However, the council of IITs and other stakeholders meeting chaired by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal ignored the opinion of the senates thus leading to the present predicament for all - the institutes, the Government, IIT aspirants and several guardians.

“We were not opposed to change in system but wanted to wait till 2013 and any changes should have been made possible only by 2014. The HRM (Sibal) had something in his mind and he perhaps wanted to do during his own tenure gauging at the perpetual instability of the UPA Government at Centre,” quipped a very senior professor from IIT-K.

322 - IIT entrance exam row: Breakthrough soon? Reported by Um-e-Kulsoom, Written by Abhinav Bhatt -NDTV

IIT entrance exam row: Breakthrough soon?

Reported by Um-e-Kulsoom, Written by Abhinav Bhatt | Updated: June 19, 2012 02:42 IST    

New Delhi: After an acrimonious fight between the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) over the new 'one nation, one test' entrance format for all centrally-funded engineering colleges, there are indications of a breakthrough.

Sources have told NDTV, that the IITs will conduct the advance test separately and it will not be held on the day of the main entrance test. Another crucial point that the IITs have been against is the inclusion of Class XII marks for the advance test. Sources say that Class XII marks will not be considered.

The softening of stance by the HRD ministry, headed by Kapil Sibal, comes after the All India Faculty Federation (AIFF) of the IITs met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the issue on Friday. Dr Singh had assured the IITs that the autonomy of the institution will be upheld.

On May 28, the HRD Ministry had announced a new format for all centrally-funded engineering colleges, including the 15 IITs and all the National Institutes of Technology (NITs). As per the proposal, equal weightage will to be given to marks obtained in the Class XII examinations and those of the entrance tests. Engineering colleges will use a 40:30:30 formula - with Class XII board results counting for 40 per cent, and the two stages of the entrance exam counting for 30 per cent each. The new entrance format meant to kick in from 2013, also combined both the main test and the advance test to a single day.

Mr Sibal had said that the common entrance exam for engineering colleges was aimed at reducing the pressure on students who finish Class XII and then have to take multiple exams for different engineering colleges.

Mr Sibal's 'one nation, one test' proposal has been opposed by various bodies of the IITs. IIT Kanpur has already announced that it will conduct its own entrance test from next year. The IIT Delhi senate, which is due to meet on June 21, is likely to follow suit.

The HRD minister, on his part, has said the decision comes after two years of deliberations with the IITs and is a unanimous one. He, however, has also said that he is "ready to talk if anyone says that the IITs' autonomy is being jeopardised."

Every year, over five lakh students take the entrance exam for IITs - there are 10,000 seats available, including quota seats.

321 - More opposition to Sibal's common entrance test - TOI

More opposition to Sibal's common entrance test

Manash Pratim Gohain, TNN Jun 18, 2012, 05.52PM IST

NEW DELHI: More opposition to the common entrance test (CET) for admissions to engineering colleges, including the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs) and National Institute of Technologies (NITs), is coming forth.

Even as the union government rules out going back on the CET proposal, member of parliament Bhalchandra Mungekar while terming the situation arising out of the proposal as alarming questioned the need for implementing the proposal on 'war footing'. In his letter to Kapil Sibal, minister for Human Resource Development, Mungekar suggested that the present system of admissions to the IITs should continue for the academic year 2012-13.

According to HRD sources, the former planning commission member who was responsible for the policy draft on higher education for the 11th five-year plan and now a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha, Mungekar on June 13 wrote to Sibal saying, "avoiding multiplicity of CETs and facilitating the entry of the poor into the IIT system are worth considering, they do not warrant an emergency decision to the extent that the IIT fraternity prepares to move the court against the MHRD and the MHRD, in turn, examines the legal status of the IIT senates and the Board of Governors. This scenario does not augur well."

The MHRD proposed a CET for admission to engineering colleges across the country. The proposal was to merge the IIT-Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) and All Indian Engineering Entrance Exam (conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education) and also to take into account the performance of the aspirants during board exams at school level for admission to the various engineering courses. The move was opposed by various senates of the IITs and the alumni associations. In fact, IIT Kanpur decided to conduct its own entrance exam, while majority of the states too were not keen on joining the CET.

Urging the MHRD to be more thoughtful and that well-informed decision could be taken in the course of time that would address the concerns of the IIT fraternity, mainly the issue of autonomy, Mungekar wrote, "... everyone in the country is well aware that our IITs and IIMs are the country's brand educational institutions recognized the world over. They have taken more than five decades to become what they are today. It is well recognized that complete academic autonomy enjoyed by these institutions played an overwhelming important role in influencing their performance."

"... let me submit that issue of one CET for the IITs and NITs, and considering marks of the HSC exam need not be taken on war footing," added the former vice chancellor of Mumbai University. ##

314 - One nation, One test - DEccan Herald

One nation, One test

Prakash Kumar, June 16, 2012

Common Entrance Test: Some IITs refuse to come under the ambit of CET saying it is flawed

With the vision of relieving aspiring engineers from the burden of writing multiple admission tests, the government recently decided to conduct a joint entrance examination for entry into all centrally-funded engineering colleges, including Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), from 2013.

The Human Resource Development Ministry planned to launch the new common entrance test, unanimously approved by the apex IIT Council, National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology, at a joint meeting held in the national capital on May 28.

But, the implementation of the proposed test, which seeks to merge IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance Examination for admission to IITs) and AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Examination), has encountered a major roadblock as a section of the faculty, students and alumni of the IITs are up in arms against the examination format, citing several lacunae.

The joint entrance examination proposal has its genesis in the ‘in-principle’ approval accorded to it by the Council of IITs in its meeting held on September 14 last year.

This was based on the T Ramasami Committee report, which recommended a common national examination with weightage to marks obtained in the state board exams, and normalised on the basis of percentile formula developed by the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. 

Though many IIT faculty members and alumni did not favour a common test, an opinion poll on the Ramasami report, conducted through the Central Government’s portal last year, saw 85 per cent of the participants favouring the reforms in the current entrance test system, while 73 per cent supported holding a national test like the scholastic aptitude test conducted in the United States.

IIT faculty came up with differing views on the proposed normalisation of the Board marks through percentile formula, weightage to be given to the Board examination, eligibility criteria, methodology of selection and the year of  introduction of the proposed test.

A faculty member of IIT-Kanpur contended that the one nation one test would put rural children at a disadvantage as it  was bound to have elements of the existing JEE that tests conceptual rigour. Rural students are not exposed to the kind of rigour needed to understand fundamental principles in any domain. However, a majority of the respondents (66 per cent), who participated in the opinion poll, had favoured giving weightage to overall and consistent performance in examinations of school boards.

All the states had consented to the proposed common test, and many, including Maharashtra and Gujarat, expressed their eagerness to adopt it in the technical institutions coming under their jurisdiction.

Even as the government was giving a final shape to the proposed reforms in February this year, the Senates of the various IITs reviewed the proposal between April 25 and May 5.

Of the seven old IITs, the Senates of IIT Guwahati, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee supported the proposed joint entrance examination. IIT Bombay proposed to retain the present system “with minor modifications”, while IIT Kanpur’s Senate wanted “substantial modification”, an HRD Ministry official told Deccan Herald.

The views of the IIT Senates were placed before the IIT Council held on May 12, and again at the joint meeting of the Council with NITs and IIITs on May 28.

The Council in its May 12 meeting observed: “By and large,  the middle ground of opinions expressed by  IIT Senates recommend that the Class XII Board results along with the National Test (Mains) be considered as screening or gating with the National Test (Advanced  level) being solely used for ranking purposes for  admission to undergraduate programmes.”

It also took note of the proposals of some of the Senates that a limited number of candidates (about five times the number of seats for admission in the IIT system) from the screening be considered eligible to appear in the Advanced test to be conducted by the IITs. It further agreed that the details of the Advanced test would be finalised in due course of time through discussion among the IITs so that it could be implemented from the year 2014.

Subsequently, the members of the Council decided to adopt the two-part joint entrance examination  to be held on the same day, from year 2013. 

Under this two-tier selection procedure, the Council allowed the IITs to first assess candidates on the basis of the JEE Main and their Class XII marks normalised on percentile basis,  giving equal weightage to both, and screen a fixed number of students. The Council made it clear that the ranking for admission to undergraduate programmes in IITs would be based entirely on the performance in JEE-Advanced by the screened candidates.

But for other Centrally funded technical institutions (CFTIs), it was decided that they would continue to be governed by the proposed policy of ranking based on 40 per cent weightage to Class XII Board marks, 30 per cent weightage to performance in JEE-Mains and another 30 per cent weightage for performance in JEE-Advanced.

The Council decided that both JEE-Main and JEE-Advanced tests would be objective and multiple choice type. It was agreed that the Joint Admission Board (JAB) of the IIT system would have “complete control” over the academic components of the test such as paper setting, evaluation and preparation of the merit list, among others, while the CBSE will provide the administrative and logistic support for the conduct of examination across the country.

But, this did not convince opponents of the common test. The Council’s decision was dubbed as an “attack on the autonomy” of IITs by their alumni association. The All India IIT Faculty Federation has sought that the government restore IITs’ autonomy by “officially” seeking ratification or acceptance from the various IIT Senates on the joint entrance examination finalised by IIT Council.

The Senate of IIT-Kanpur has raised a banner of revolt against the Council’s decision and even passed a resolution to hold its own examination for admissions to the institution’s under graduate programmes in 2013.

The Senate authorised the Institute’s director to set up a committee in consultation with the dean of academics for finalising the modalities of the entrance examination. The committee, to the extent possible, shall coordinate with other IITs to conduct the test jointly. The resolution passed by the Senate, however, is subject to approval by the Board of Governors of the IIT before it comes into effect, as per the Institute of Technology Act, 1961.

Legal route

The IIT Alumni Association has threatened to move court against the IIT Council decision.

Association president Somnath Bharti contended that under the IT Act, the IIT Council can only advice or recommend. It is the Senate of each IIT which has powers to promulgate ordinance relating to various matters, including admissions, which, of course, has to be approved by the Board of Governors.

HRD Ministry officials, however, counter the argument stating that the IIT Council can lay down policy under the IT Act in “matters of common interest”, and issue of admissions to the IITs is a matter of common interest. “IIT Council is the highest decision making body of the IITs,” an official said.

293 - CET issue: PM to meet IIT Federation today - ZEE News

CET issue: PM to meet IIT Federation today

Last Updated: Thursday, June 14, 2012, 10:57

Zeenews Bureau 

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday will meet the Faculty Federation and Alumni Associations of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to discuss the proposed Common Entrance Test (CET). 

The meeting comes after the revolt against the Human Resource Development Ministry's move for a common engineering entrance test by IIT-Kanpur professors who sought "direct and immediate intervention" of the PM to settle the issue. 

The Faculty Forum has opined that by doing away with the AIEEE, NIT, IIT-JEE and changing the exam format to a single CET, engineering aspirants would be burdened with pressure and tension. 

Urging the Prime Minister to use his "good offices" to thrash out contentious issue at the earliest, IIT-Kanpur has also asked Dr Singh to order cancellation of the proposed CET format that the HRD ministry is likely to implement.

The IIT-Kanpur virtually revolted against the HRD Ministry's move for a common entrance test and announced that it would hold its own entrance test from 2013. 

Soon after Kanpur raised the banner of revolt, IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay also dropped enough hints that they too would go the Kanpur way. There is a growing sentiment against the CET proposal, many in the IIT faculty feel. 

The IIT-Kanpur is upset with the ministry's decision to merge IIT Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) with the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and the 210-member senate of IIT-Kanpur has passed a resolution rejecting the new format. 

In a resolution moved and voted by the senate, it was said that the recent "IIT Council proposal on admissions to IITs is academically and methodically unsound and in violation of the Institutes of Technology Act (1961) and IIT Kanpur Ordinances (Ordinance 3.2 (Admissions)."

292 - IITs' autonomy not in 'danger' with 'one-nation one-test'? - Daily Bhaskar

IITs' autonomy not in 'danger' with 'one-nation one-test'?

Source: Dailybhaskar.com   |   Last Updated 02:00(12/06/12

New Delhi: With more IITs joining chorus against his 'one nation, one test' format, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal to defend or justify the uniform selection criteria for admission into different engineering institutions across country including IITs, NITs and IIITs. The HRD minister in his defence said that there is no intent on the part of the government to "infringe on the autonomy" of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Sibal adds that the decision to conduct a common entrance examination for the IITs, from the year 2013 onward, was a unanimous one, taken by the IIT Council comprising the governing bodies of the IITs, the National Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs).

Defending his concept of one nation one test, the minister said that he is "ready to talk if anyone says that the IITs' autonomy is being jeopardised."

Every year, about 5 lakh students take IIT’s Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE).

The immense criticism on HRD ministry’s decision to introduce a common engineering test for central engineering institutions including IITs, NITs and IIITs is likely to turn into a legal battle with IIT alumni’s plan to drag the matter into court.

With furore soaring high, faculty members from IIT Kanpur had earlier planned to boycott the institute’s convocation ceremony to mark the protest. 

290 - Sibal pits Senates against Council to check rebellion among IITs - India Today

Sibal pits Senates against Council to check rebellion among IITs

New Delhi, June 12, 2012 |

The lawyer in Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal seems to be working overtime to steamroller the simmering revolt in the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) over entrance examination to these prestigious colleges. He has been mulling over a strategy to divide and rule pitting the rebellious IIT Senates against the pliable IIT Council.

As Sibal's "one nation, one test" plan has triggered a full fledged standoff, yet another embarrassment has been staring at an already embattled United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. So, the HRD minister has now been taking cover of the IIT Act to split these institutes and defuse the crisis.

Sibal has been preparing to pit the IIT Council against the IIT Senates. He is citing the IIT Act to question the autonomy of the IIT Senates. By throwing the rulebook, he has been looking at isolating the IIT Senates. This might compel the rebellious arm of the IITs to bow down before the HRD minister.

Now the question comes how Sibal is exploiting the IIT Act to his advantage. The IITs are governed by a 50-year-old Act that demarcates powers of its three major arms. The Senate is lowest in the rung and is responsible for standards of instruction, education and examination.

The Council, which has been backing Sibal, has a say in admission procedures. It also looks into the duration of courses and other academic issues. The board of governors can review decisions taken by Senates and modify or cancel ordinances.

The HRD minister, for now, has sought to douse the fire. He posted his view on micro-blogging site downplaying the revolts by Kanpur and Kharagpur IITs against his move.

"In terms of the Act the Council is entitled to take certain decisions by virtue of a statue. The Council has endorsed those decisions. I don't know what the exact objection is. I will find out the nature of these objections and will surely address it," Sibal tweeted.

He realises if the standoff escalates further, it can add to his government's woes which has already been under fire over several issues of governance.

The row over combined entrance exams can lead to postponing of exams to 2014. Besides, the confrontation between faculty and management can seriously dent the standards of the IITs, which are one of the India's few world class educational institutions.

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/sibal-pits-senates-against-council-to-check-rebellion-among-iits/1/200399.html

288 - Common engineering entrance in favour of students, says Sibal - News Track

Common engineering entrance in favour of students, says Sibal

United States America,Education, Tue, 12 Jun 2012

Washington, June 12 (IANS) With several Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) coming out in opposition on the proposed common entrance test, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Tuesday reiterated that the common test was in favour of students.

Sibal, who is on here to attend the India-US Education Dialogue, told reporters that it was clear that autonomy of IITs needed to be maintained but questioned how their autonomy was being affected by the decision.

"Academic autonomy of IIT system has to be maintained, and must be maintained that is quite clear. But if someone says look autonomy of IITs is being jeopardised, I would respectfully beg to differ. If I am enlightened further how it is being jeopardised, I am always open to make them more empowered," he said.

The minister's comments come after the senate of IIT Kanpur came out against the common test amd announced a separate entrance test from 2013.

Senates of several other IITs have followed suit, with many saying they did not agree to this new format with merged entrance of IITs with that for the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs). The new format also includes a fixed weightage from school board marks to the entrance test score.

The IIT Faculty Federation, and alumni associations have called the decision an attack on the autonomy of the institutions. They have said the senates were overruled while taking this decision, even as several IIT directors spoke in favour of the new format.

Sibal, however, said the decision of the common entrance test was not his, but of the IIT council.

"Quite frankly this is not the minister's decisions. This is the unanimous decision of the IIT Council, consisting of all the IIT directors and chairmen. 

Then we have the IIIT Council representatives there, we have NIIT Council representatives there. All of them decided unanimously for a particular course of action," he said.

"In terms of the IIT Act, there is an IIT Council. In terms of that Act, the Council is entitled to take certain decisions by virtue of a statue. The Council has endorsed those decisions. I do not know what the exact objections to it is? I will go back and find out the exact nature of these objections and will surely address it," he said.

The IIT Faculty Federation and IIT Delhi Alumni Association have also decided to meet the prime minister over the issue.

286 - A testing time for India’s exams - Gulf News

A testing time for India’s exams

The government wants to standardise entrance examinations for top technology institutions — but academics are upset

• By S. Narendra, Correspondent
• Published: 00:00 June 14, 2012

Mumbai: India’s Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal finds himself on the back foot over a controversial plan to standardise examinations — the so called “one nation one test” proposal — for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs).

Through his decision to scrap the existing IIT Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), Sibal has drawn criticism from IITs, he has shown a willingness to address concerns, commenting in Washington on Tuesday that the IIT council should be permitted to set the new exams.

But the aggrieved institutions now say he has gone too far, charging him with “infringing”on their autonomy. Senators of the influential IITs of Kanpur, Delhi and Bombay are loudly opposing a Common Entrance Test (CET) for all IITs, NITs and IIITs from 2013. They have taken a stand that the CET would increase stress among students seeking admissions to IITs.

The IITs opposing the new exam pattern approved by the IIT Council, at its meeting chaired by Sibal on May 28, have not taken kindly to the introduction of two sets of examinations — the main and advanced exams — on the same day.

280 - How Kapil Sibal rode roughshod over IIT autonomy - First Post

How Kapil Sibal rode roughshod over IIT autonomy

by FP Editors Jun 12, 2012



The problem with Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal is that he tries to be too clever by half. It was clear right from the beginning that he wanted a common entrance examination for engineering, and that is what he has now engineered by trampling on the autonomy of the IIT Senates and using the IIT Council – where the votes are stacked in favour of the government – to push his idea through.

Sibal’s technique was this. First, pretend to hold a dialogue without actually listening; next, push the idea through a rubber-stamping body and then claim that the whole process was done through dialogue and consensus. A dialogue of the deaf is no dialogue at all.

An Indian Express story explains the sequence of events to prove that Sibal did how own thing and ignored the actual consensus. He may insist that he had consulted all stakeholders before deciding on the common entrance exam for all engineering colleges, but the fact is the IIT senates and faculty members had raised objections to the new format on various occasions and these were studiously ignored.

Each IIT has a senate,  created under the IIT Act, which consists of representatives from the faculty of the IITs and students. The senate discusses the operation of each of the institutes. It is headed by the Director of each IIT.

Representative image of IIT Bombay. AFP

A committee headed by Damodar Acharya, the Director of IIT Kharagpur, was formed by the HRD ministry in 2010. According to the Express report,  the IIT Kanpur faculty had rejected the committee’s report saying it hadn’t consulted with specialists. This was as far back as 2010.

In 2011, a committee headed by T Ramasami, secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, made the recommendation that weightage should be given to Class XII marks in addition to the two exams – JEE mains and JEE advanced.

This was then endorsed by the councils of the IITs and NITs in November 2011 and by state education ministers in February 2012.

However, this new measure never found any favour among most IIT senates.
IIT Kanpur senate held a meeting on 15 February in which members of the senate criticised most of the new measures and suggested they not be implemented until all the IIT senates had discussed it. Among the major complaints they had included the quality of the class XII examinations conducted by each state education board, the methods used to collect the views of all stake holders among other issues.

However, the HRD ministry instead set up a core committee to interact with the older IITs and said they would also reach out to the academic community from the IITs to get their views on the issue.

On 5 May, the IIT Bombay senate also recommended that the new system not be implemented from 2013 and should instead be ratified by them before being implemented. The IIT Delhi senate also raised objections to the new JEE format being implemented from 2013.

Despite these varied recommendations from IIT senates and the faculty on the new JEE format, the HRD ministry told them that the final decision would only be taken by the IIT council which did not have to be dependent on what the senates had said.

However, whether the the IIT council truly represented the opinion of the IITs is debatable. Of its membership of 30-32, roughly half (16) represent the IITs and IISc (through their respective chairman and director, and the balance are all nominees where the government has clear influence. This means Sibal only had to split opinion among some of the IIT directors and a majority would support his ideas at the IIT council.

Thus even as the All India IIT Faculty Federation met Sibal on 25 May to impress on him that the senates’ views should form the basis for any decision on a common entrance test, Sibal had already decided otherwise. Which is why he told them, that while their inputs would be taken, “final decision will be taken only by the IIT Council which could be different from the IIT senates’ majority decisions”.

This statement, quoted by the Express, clearly shows how Sibal won the day by disregarding what the faculty were telling him and breaking the unity of the IIT faculty on the issue. This is not a difficult task since the appointment of IIT chairmen depends on the HRD ministry.

And on 28 May, Sibal held a meeting with the councils of the IIT, IIIT and NIT and announced the creation of the new entrance examination for engineering colleges from 2013.

While the new examination scheme  may be the future of the IITs, it perhaps wouldn’t have hurt if the minister had chosen to preserve the autonomy of the IIT senates. The faculty have a bigger stake in brand IIT than politician Sibal. All the IIT Senates were asking for was to defer the common entrance exam decision to 2014 to consider better options. But Sibal was in a a hurry for his own reasons.

278 - IIT-Sibal standoff escalates: PM to douse 'common test' fire? - Daily Bhaskar

IIT-Sibal standoff escalates: PM to douse 'common test' fire?

12th June 2012



New Delhi: With the HRD Minister virtually ruling out going back on the new 'one-nation-one-test' proposal for engineering colleges, the Faculty Federation and Alumni Associations of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) hope for some positive response from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The All-India IIT Faculty Federation and the IIT-Delhi Alumni Association who sought PM's intervention in the issue are reportedly awaiting response to their request for an appointment.

According to reports, accusing Sibal of disregarding the senates concern about the new format, the faculty forum of IIT have urged Prime Minister's 'direct and immediate intervention' to resolve the issue.

The association had reportedly wrote to PM on June 6 but is yet to get an appointment. It has been asked to wait until Sibal returns home from the US on June 14.

Reports said that IIT professors, in their letter urged the Prime Minister to intervene and thrash out the contentious changes in the format of the Joint Entrance Examiantion (JEE)-2013, claiming that the Academic Senate was supreme in such matters.

The Faculty Forum has opined that by doing away with the AIEEE, NIT, IIT-JEE and changing the exam format to a single CET, engineering aspirants would be burdened with pressure and tension.

IIT-Kanpur has reportedly asked the Prime Minister to order cancellation of the proposed Common Entrance Test format that the HRD ministry is likely to implement. Senate of the IIT Kanpur on Friday last had virtually defied HRD Ministry's decision to merge IIT Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) with the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE).

The 210-member senate of IIT-Kanpur also passed a resolution rejecting the new format. The premiere insititute went ahead and decided to conduct its own entrance exam from next year. The reports also that IIT-Kanpur had constituted a nine-member committee to look into the admissions.


Sibal adamant on the new format
Meanwhile, rejecting criticism, the Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said the government has no intent to impinge on the autonomy of the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs).

Defending the decision to have one nationwide common entrance test, which is being opposed by IIT Kanpur among others, Sibal said this has been taken in accordance with the IIT Act passed by the Indian Parliament.

Sibal said this is a unanimous decisions of the IIT Council.
"There is no intent to impact on the IIT system autonomy. The exam that is being contemplated is to be set by the IIT itself," Sibal told reporters in Washington when asked to comment on the controversy back home.
Sibal had on May 28 announced that from 2013, aspiring candidates for IITs and other central institutes like NITs and IIITs will have to sit under a new format of common entrance test, which will also take the plus-two board results into consideration.

The minister had claimed that it was approved without dissent at a council consisting of the IITs, the IIITs and the NITs.
(With PTI inputs)

276 - IIT Kanpur rejects Kapil Sibal's one test plan - ZEE News

IIT Kanpur rejects Kapil Sibal's one test plan
Saturday, June 09, 2012, 13:15

Kanpur: Rejecting HRD Minister Kapil Sibal's 'one-nation one-test' proposal, IIT-Kanpur on Friday decided to conduct its own entrance exam from next year.

This decision was taken at a meeting of the institute's 210-member senate.

Terming it as a very important development, IIT Delhi alumni president Somnath Bharti said "other senates are likely to follow the suit".

The Senate of IIT Kanpur said that the recent IIT Council proposal on admissions to IITs is "academically and methodically unsound and in violation of the Institutes of Technology Act (1961) and IIT Kanpur Ordinances (Ordinance 3.2 (Admissions)"

"....The Senate resolves that IIT Kanpur will conduct the entrance examination for admissions to its undergraduate programmes in 2013," it said.

The decision came days after government rejected criticism of the decision to have a common IIT-JEE examination from next year.

Sibal had claimed that it was approved without dissent at the IIT Council meeting and had the backing of the senates of four of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology.

He had maintained that he had categorically stated at the IIT council meeting that if "there is a single dissent" he will not go ahead with the proposal.

"The council consists of the IITs, the IIITs and the NITs. There was not a single dissent. It was unanimously adopted. Therefore, I went forward," the Minister had said.

Last month, Sibal had announced that from 2013, aspiring candidates for IITs and other central institutes like NITs and IIITs will have to sit under new a format of common entrance test which will also take plus two board results into consideration.