Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras has become the first IIT to introduce sports quota for its undergraduate admissions and will create two supernumerary seats in each course from the 2024-25 academic session, according to its director V Kamakoti.
Currently, the IITs do not have a sports quota while many of the country's premier universities, including Delhi University, do.
"Starting from 2024-2025 academic session, IIT Madras will offer two supernumerary seats per undergraduate programme for Indian nationals under the Sports Excellence Admission (SEA) programme. We are the first IIT to introduce sports quota and the idea is to reward and encourage students who have achieved a certain level of excellence in sports of their choice," Kamakoti told PTI.
"Two seats per programme will be allotted through the SEA. While one will be gender-neutral, other will be female-only," he added.
To be eligible for admission through SEA, candidates must have secured a position in the Common Rank List (CRL) or category-wise rank list in the JEE (Advanced) and must have won at least one medal in any national and international-level sports competition in the last four years.
The candidate will also be required to have obtained the minimum required class 12 marks as per the eligibility criteria for IIT admissions.
"A separate Sports Rank List (SRL) will be prepared based on the total score obtained by the candidates based on their performance in specific list of sports. The seat allotment will be done based on SRL only," he explained.
The idea was mooted by IIT Madras before the IIT Council, the apex body of the top tech institutions, last year.
"The notion of sports quota exists in the higher education system in India but hasn't been introduced in IITs yet. In principle, all IITs had welcomed the proposal. A detailed implementation modalities and timelines were prepared in consultation with JEE Apex Board (JAB)," he said.
JAB is responsible for deciding guidelines for the conduct of JEE (Main) examination and also coordinating the conduct of JEE (Advanced) exam for admissions to IITs. IIT Madras is conducting the JEE-Advanced this year.
Among the sports for which candidates will be eligible for admission under the quota are aquatic, athletics, chess, cricket, badminton, basketball, football, hockey, squash, table tennis, lawn tennis, volleyball and weightlifting.
"For the academic year 2024-2025, the SEA will consider the scores obtained by the candidates in these sports only to ensure the availability of facilities at the admitting IIT so that the candidates can continue to excel in sports," Kamakoti said.
Different weightage will be allocated to different national and international games with the highest being for World Championship and SAF games.
In the international category, the competitions from which medal winners will be eligible include Olympics, Commonwealth Championship, Asian Games and World University Games.
The national competitions include Federation Cup, All India Inter-University, Khelo India University Games, Khelo India Youth Games, Khelo India School Games and All India School Games.