HYDERABAD : IIT-Hyderabad, achieved a record with not a single one of its 140 seats going vacant.
The Indian Insti tute of Technology-Hyderabad was the most sought after IIT in the country this year. While the old IITs struggled to fill all the seats even after all three phases of IIT-JEE counselling were over, IIT-Hyderabad, which was established just three years ago, achieved a record with not a single one of its 140 seats going vacant. In fact, it admitted two extra students owing to the huge demand this year.
Out of 7,536 B.Tech seats available in 15 IITs across the country this year, 7,316 seats were filled after three rounds of counselling, leaving 220 seats vacant.
Surprisingly, seats are going begging in prominent IITs that were established some decades ago, such as IIT-Kharagpur, which has 55 vacant seats, IIT-Madras that has 17 vacancies, and IIT-Roorkee, which has the most number of vacancies at 63. IIT-Hyderabad was one among the eight new IITs that were established by the Centre in 2008.
Running from a temporary campus in Ordnance Factory in Medak and mentored by IIT-Madras, IIT-Hyderabad is today the largest of the new IITs with a total student strength of 762, which includes M.Tech, Ph.D. and M.Sc. (physics/chemistry) students. “Invention and innovation have been the top priority of IIT-H since its inception. I think this has attracted students,” Prof Uday B. Desai, director, IIT-H, said.
According to Prof Desai, in its first year, 60 per cent of the students at IIT-H were from Andhra Pradesh, while the remaining seats were filled by students from other states. However, from the second year, the trend has reversed. Almost 70 per cent of the students are now from rest of India. He said that IIT-H has evolved as a ‘national campus’.
“We want to maintain the excellent teaching standards. IIT-H is the only IIT among the new ones to launch M.Tech, Ph.D and M.Sc courses along with B.Tech,” he said.
IIT-H is also the only one among the new IITs to have a full-time faculty of 72 at present, Prof. Desai said.