IITs Give Approval for Raising Seats, Taking Non-resident Students

The IITs gave their approval for increasing the number of seats and will start taking non-resident students decided the IIT council on Tuesday, August 23. The decision was made to add more seats to both undergraduate and postgraduate programs so that the intake can be taken up to one lakh within three years. The council was chaired by HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar.

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A ministry official informed that the IITs have also been asked to give the number of seats that they can add from the session 2017 based on the number of faculty members and other facilities. It is expected that there will be a collective rise of 4,000 B.Tech seats, 6,000 M.Tech and research seats every year till 2020. Around 72,000 students are studying in the 23 IITs at this moment.

To achieve this, the council decided to eliminate the rule that makes it compulsory for students to stay on campus. It will be the focus of the institute to take in more non-resident students.

‘PM Research Fellowship’ has also been introduced by the premier institutions that will be offered to around 1,000 students after their B.Tech course is completed at the IITs. This fellowship will allow B.Tech students to register for Ph.D. as soon as their graduation is done. This scheme has been introduced to encourage research in India and stop the brain drain.

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Apart from the above, a three-week induction course has also been introduced by the council to help fresher students to adapt the environment of the institutes and adjust easily as they join after clearing the most difficult competitive exam in the country.