IIT-Madras introduces sports quota in UG programmes

Chennai: The prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) on Friday became the first IIT in the country to introduce Sports Quota in its undergraduate programmes from the 2024-2025 academic year.

The Institute will implement the ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ (SEA), under which it will offer two supernumerary seats, of which one will be exclusively for female students, in each of its undergraduate programs for Indian citizens.

This initiative, the IIT-M said, is to recognize and reward talented students who have excelled in sports and encourage deserving students to pursue higher education while continuing to excel in their sports.

The admission process through SEA will require a student to qualify JEE (Advanced) but would not be through Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) portal rather through a separate portal operated by IIT-Madras.

“This is a very progressive step to ensure holistic education as envisaged in the National Education Policy 2020 (and) to acknowledge achievements in sports by young children and also give them an opportunity to further understand their respective sports from an engineering and technology perspective,” IIT-M Director Prof. V Kamakoti, said.

He also said the IIT-M will launch a Sports Complex with advanced equipment in the near future.

To be eligible for admission through this program, 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/International-level sports competition in the last four years.

A separate ‘Sports Rank List’ (SRL) will be prepared based on the total score obtained by the candidates based on their performance in a specific list of sports, the IIT-M said, adding that the seat allotment will be done based on this list.