HRD Ministry: NITs May Get Extra Seats for Women from 2018

Addressing the need to increase the number of female students enrolling for engineering programmes at NITs, HRD Ministry is considering various steps to get more female students in the National Institutes of Technology (NITs).

The Ministry has recorded a sharp dip in the number of female students enrolling at NITs for the session 2017-18. The HRD Ministry is also planning to follow the footsteps of IITs and consider the idea of supernumerary (extra) seats from the academic year 2018-19.

According to reports, only 13% of female students took admission in NITs for the academic session 2017-18. There has been a drop of 9% as female students comprised 22% of the total intake of NITs in 2016.

Experts have stated that the drop in the number of female students in NIT is due to the scraping of 40% weightage given to class 12 marks during admissions. From 2017, JEE Main was made the single criteria for shortlisting students who can take admission in B.Tech programmes offered by NITs.

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Directors of various NITs have raised this concern with the HRD Ministry and has asked them to make policies in order to improve the percentage of female students in NITs.

Few of the HRD officials have agreed that the removal of weightage given to class 12 marks might have been the reason behind the drop in the number of female students. Sources also revealed that the increase in the number of seats for female candidates will not affect the existing seats in NITs.

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The 31 NITs across the country have a total intake of 17,000 students. In 2016, 3,900 female students took admission in NITs, whereas, in 2017, the number came down to 2,500. IITs also encountered the same problem and have decided to introduce 20% special (or supernumerary) seats for female students.