JEE Advanced 2021 brochure released, Know changes introduced this year

Information brochure of JEE advanced 2021 has been released by the IIT Kharagpur. Read on to know the changes introduced in the IIT entrance this year.

JEE Advanced 2021 information brochure has been released by the IIT Kharagpur online on the official website i.e. jeeadv.ac.in. However, the exam conducting authority has not released the various dates related to the application form, admit card and exam along with the brochure.

Earlier, the JEE Advanced was scheduled to be held on July 3 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 situation across the country. There are various changes related to JEE Advanced this year. Aspirants can go through all of them below.

JEE Advanced 2020 candidates allowed: Along with the top 2.5 lakh JEE Main 2021 qualified candidates, those who were eligible to appear for the JEE Advanced last year but were absent will also be given a chance to appear for the entrance test. The authorities have offered the relaxation after many students who could not appear for JEE Advanced last year due to COvid-19 requested an extra attempt.

However, such students will not increase the competition for present students. According to the official information brochure, the students from last year will be considered “in addition to the current batch and not part of them” in case of qualifying for the entrance exam. For last year’s students, their passport size photograph and the signature will be auto-populated while filling the JEE Advanced 2021 application form. These details will be directly taken from their last year’s forms. Further, a Unique Reference Code (URC) will be provided to the eligible candidates, which will be required during the time of entry to the exam hall and filling the form.

Female Quota: Another change introduced this year is that the number of seats reserved for women will be decided individually by each IIT. Last year, the female quota was at 20 per cent. Seats under the female quota will be supernumerary means the girls will be offered seats under different programmes in addition to the existing ones.

The decision has been taken to ensure that at least 20 per cent female students enrol for the 2021 batch in different undergraduate programmes offered by IITs. This means IITs with more girl students in a programme/course will need to create lesser extra female quota seats while those with lesser female students will need to create more seats. The admission of the girl students will be based on the Common Rank List of JEE Advanced 2021.

In past years, seats reserved for women across IITs were 17 per cent and 14 per cent respectively in 2019 and 2018. The female quota seats are offered to ensure gender diversity in IITs which usually have more males as compared to females at undergraduate engineering (BTech) courses. Till now, not a single girl has topped the IIT entrance exam so far. Things have started changing gradually in the last few years. For instance, Delhi’s Kavya Chopra is the first-ever female student to have obtained a full score in JEE Main 2021.

For students belonging to other categories, there is a 15 per cent reservation for Scheduled Caste (SC) and 7.5 per cent for Scheduled Tribe (ST) in every course. There is a provision of five (5) per cent reservation for Persons with Disability (PwD) in all IITs. The institutes also have EWS quota and foreign quota that are supernumerary.

Board Exams: In January this year, authorities have also waived off the requirement of obtaining at least 75 per cent marks in class 12 board exams for admission to IITs. Students now just need to pass the board exams. This rule was passed last year by the Ministry of Education, however, will be applicable for students this year too.

Expected Date: JEE Advanced was scheduled to be conducted on July 3 this year but it was postponed due to the spike in COVID-19 cases across the country. With the brochure being released, it is expected that the JEE Main revised dates too will be announced soon. JEE Advanced is conducted every year for admission to undergraduate engineering courses (BTech), integrated masters and a bachelor-master dual degree in engineering, sciences or architecture. Top 2.5 lakh JEE Main qualified candidates are eligible to apply for JEE Advanced. It is expected that the remaining sessions of JEE Main 2021 will be held in July and August. If this is considered true, the JEE Advanced 2021 can be expected to be held no sooner than September.

Organizing Institute: In 2021, IIT Kharagpur will conduct JEE Advanced. Last year, the exam was conducted by the IIT Delhi. In 2020, a total number of 1,60,838 candidates registered for JEE Advanced of which 43,204 candidates qualified for the exam. The total intake was more than 16,000.

Candidates must know all the above information related to the exam. JEE Advanced is conducted under the aegis of the Joint Admission Board (JAB) for admissions to Bachelor’s, Integrated Master and Dual Degree programmes in all the 23 IITs.