Come 2013, there will be a new format for admission to all central government-funded engineering institutions — IITs, NITs, IIITs etc.

There will be now one common entrance test, the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), which will replace the old IIT-JEE and AIEEE. It will give more weightage to Std XII exam results and comprise of two objective type tests — JEE-Main and JEE-Advanced — which will be conducted the same day.

The JEE merit list will be prepared on the basis of cumulative total of marks of Std XII, Main and Advanced. The Main will have multiple-choice questions, while the nature and modalities of the Advanced will be determined by the IITs’ Joint Admission Board (JAB).

For the IITs, only the top 25% who are above the cut-off and get the highest percentile on the basis of Std XII marks and JEE-Main will be screened for a special JEE-Advanced; 50% weightage will be given to Std XII marks and 50% to JEE-Main scores. The IIT merit list will be prepared on the basis of the special Advanced result.

But seat and course allotment for all IITs will be held together in joint counselling.

For the NITs, IIITs and other central government-funded engineering colleges, there will be no screening test. Their merit list will be based on Std XII marks for which 40% weightage will be given. Main and Advanced scores will have 30% weightage each.

At the end there will be two lists, one for IITs and one for other institutes. However, all students will be ranked, and IIT ranked students can also apply to other engineering institutions based on this list.

The CBSE will conduct the JEE. The states will have the freedom to join the process for admissions in their engineering colleges and the autonomy to determine their own relative weightages to Std XII marks, and performance in Main and Advanced.

According to human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana have already decided to adopt this new model for their engineering exams from 2013.

The decision was announced following a meeting of the Joint Councils of IITs, NITs and IIITs, with the Federation of Faculty of IITs.

The battle between the IITs and the government has been a long-drawn-out one. Opposing Sibal's move, the IITs had felt that a single JEE may dilute their quality of students and were demanding a separate test to further screen students best suited for IITs.

“The kind of academic training given in IITs is different from AICTE syllabus. Hence, the mindset and aptitude of the students too has to be different. Which is why we needed a separate examination for IITs,” said Sanjay Dhande, director of IIT-Kanpur. The IIT Council has, however, agreed to move to the one-nation-one-exam format by 2015 with IITs too following the same pattern as NITs, IIITs etc.

To prevent any disadvantage to the previous batches of Std XII, it has been decided that those who appeared for the Std XII exam in 2012 can improve their performance by reappearing for the same in 2013.

“The new system will be a dampener for coaching institutes. It will also reduce the mental and financial stress on students by preventing multiple entrance exams and reduce the discretion of engineering colleges and capitation fee,” said Sibal.