New Delhi: From the next academic session, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras will reserve two supernumerary seats in every undergraduate programme for students excelling in fine arts and culture.
This is the first time an IIT has introduced such a provision. Last year, IIT Madras became the first IIT to reserve supernumerary seats for students excelling in sports.
The Fine Arts and Culture Excellence (FACE) admission programme aims to recognise and encourage students who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in fine arts and culture, IIT Madras director V. Kamakoti said.
“With this initiative, IIT Madras is embarking on a new journey to admit talented students to its prestigious undergraduate programmes, based on their excellence in fine arts and culture. Two seats will be reserved per programme in all B.Tech. and B.S. courses at IIT Madras, with one of these seats will be reserved for female candidates, while the other will be gender-neutral,” he said.
Eligibility criteria
For admission under the FACE category, the candidates should be an Indian national or OCI/PIO candidate who has chosen to be treated at par with Indian nationals at the time of JEE (Advanced) 2025 registration.
The candidate should have qualified in JEE (Advanced) 2025 and have obtained a rank in the Common Rank List (CRL), or category-wise rank list in JEE (Advanced) 2025. The position in the rank list may be in any of the categories for which rank lists are prepared, thereby ensuring that the reservation benefits are not lost and the requisite academic requirement is not diluted.
The candidate should have obtained the minimum required marks in Class XII as per the eligibility criteria for IITs.
Besides, the candidate should have received recognition in at least one of the nine select categories in recognition of their excellence in fine arts and cultural activities.
They include the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar under Arts and Culture awarded by Ministry of Women and Child Empowerment, the National Bal Shree Honour in creative performance, creative art, creative painting awarded by the Ministry of Education, National Youth Award under Art/Culture awarded by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar awarded by Sangeet Nataka Akademi, Active B-grade certification from All India Radio or Doordarshan, Prasar Bharati, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting during the last six years.
Admission process
Candidates will submit necessary documents and apply through the dedicated portal https://jeeadv.iitm.ac.in/face. Each candidate will be assigned a score based on their achievements in fine arts and culture, as outlined in the categories provided in the Table. A separate Fine Arts and Culture Excellence Rank List (FACE Rank List, or FRL) will be prepared, reflecting the total score earned by candidates based on their performance in various fine arts and culture events, awards, and scholarships.
Only the listed awards, scholarships, and recognitions will be considered for inclusion in the FRL. Seat allotment will take place in multiple rounds based solely on the FACE Rank List. However, inclusion in the FRL does not guarantee admission.
Once a seat is allotted, candidates will be given the option to either ‘Accept’ or ‘Reject’ the seat and must pay the seat acceptance fee by the specified deadline.
If the seat is rejected, the candidate will be permanently removed from the FACE seat allotment process. If it is accepted, candidates must pay the Seat Acceptance Fee before the specified deadline, and choose one of the two options — ‘Freeze’ or ‘Slide’ — similar to the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) admission process. Additionally, they will need to submit proof of withdrawal from the JoSAA 2025 process.
Tentative admission timeline
The application process is likely to begin from 2 June, 2025, and is likely to close on 8 June. After which, documents will be verified from 9 to 12 June, and a list of eligible and ineligible candidates, along with their scores, is likely to be announced on 13 June.
Round one of provisional seat allotments are likely by 14 June. A candidate who is allotted a seat will have to pay the seat acceptance fee. If the candidate rejects the seat, he/she will be removed from the process.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
This is a stupid idea. And it will only degrade the academic environment of the eminent institution.
These fine arts students will not be able to deal with the intense academic workload. And they will resort to blaming the professor and the institute for their poor performance.
This arrangement helps nobody – neither the selected students nor the institute.
The only ones actually excited with this provision would be the unscrupulous elements, such as the UPSC officer’s cabal and politicians, who will surely use this as a back-door entry scheme for their children.
Cultural excellence? My foot.
Just another back-door entry mechanism which will enable the children of IAS/IPS/IFS/IRS officers and politicians to get into IITs.
Prof. Kamakoti seems to be on a mission to dilute the academic standing of IIT Madras.
One can only hope that the other IITs will not start such back-door entry schemes. In India, such schemes are always meant to serve rhe children of the elite sections of our society.
IITs are on their way to join the woke brigade.
Such steps will most certainly bring down the academic standards of the hallowed institutions.
Fine arts students, across the globe, are a bunch of rabble rousers. Wherever they go, protests and controversies follow. Even a cursory glance at the history of the National School of Drama (NSD) or the FTII will suffice to prove my point.
Arts students are irresistibly drawn to idiotic “causes” of all hues and shades. They are easy victims of the woke propaganda carried out by the extreme/fringe Left.
Allowing such people into the campus of IITs is a huge mistake.