The number of candidates registering for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE)-Advanced exam after clearing the JEE-Mains exam have been dropping over the last eight years, an analysis of data on the two-tier structure of the exam since 2014 showed.
Marking a nine-year low, from 83.1 per cent in 2014 to 61.5 per cent students in 2022, about 1.6 lakh out of the 2.6 lakh qualified candidates have registered to write the exam scheduled to be held on August 28.
In 2021, 1.5 lakh out of the 2.6 lakh candidates (58.1 per cent) registered to take the final level of the examination, which will determine admissions to 23 Indian Institutes of Technology across the country. At 64.1 per cent, the previous year had 1.60 lakh students registering out of the 2.5 lakh students who passed the Mains exam.
This is a pronounced dip from 2014 when the registrations were at 83.1 per cent. A steady drop could be noticed across the years at 79 per cent, 78.6 per cent, 77.4 per cent, 71.7 per cent, and 71.7 per cent in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, respectively.
Experts believe this is because students choose other engineering colleges based on their JEE-Mains score and that it is not indicative of a lack of interest in the IITs.
“Students with lower ranks in JEE-Main are not sure of bagging a seat in IIT after Advanced. However, that JEE-Main score is a sure seat in a long list of good technology institutes across India, holding admission based solely on the JEE-Main result,” said a senior professor from IIT Bombay who wished to stay anonymous.
A senior official from IIT Kanpur said: “The competition to bag an IIT seat is really tough, considering the limited number of seats. Even as there is an increase in the number of IITs, adding to the total number of seats, it is a very small number when compared to this huge pool of students vying for it. Naturally, a lot of students who have lower ranks in JEE-Main, opt out of the IIT system and seek admission to a preferred course in a non-IIT technology Institute.”
Similar thoughts were echoed by Subhasis Chaudhuri, director, IIT Bombay (the organising IIT for the JEE Advanced this year). He said, “Based on their performance in Main, some of them realise that it is better not to prolong the agony by going for the Advanced test when they have already secured career options.”
Ajit Chaturvedi, Director of IIT Roorkee said in the same vein that “students evaluate their chances of getting a seat in IIT…they are not interested in spending more time, money and energy on preparation for JEE-Advanced”.
IIT Delhi’s former director, V Ramgopal Rao, was of the opinion that the branch of engineering also played a vital role in making the choice. “Everything these days is decided by students based on popular branches. If after JEE-Main, someone is going to get a better branch at the National Institute of Technology, most likely the candidate will go ahead with it, rather than settling for an engineering branch they he/she may not see a future in,” he said.
As per a senior official from IIT Kanpur, the “branch of engineering is a very dear topic for candidates applying for engineering. They prefer to go to an institute where admission is possible in the desired branch of engineering.”
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