IIT Goa To Have More Female Students From July Session

Last year, the HRD ministry announced that all IITs must now increase the number of admissions so that they have at least 14 per cent girls in every new batch starting from the 2018-2019 academic session. The IITs were also told to accommodate the increasing number of women students by increasing the number of hostel berths. Consequently, this is set to increase the number of girl students at the two-year-old IIT Goa campus at Farmagudi, reported TOI.

Currently, only 16 out of the 176 students are females at IIT Goa

Barad Kant Mishra, IIT Goa director, told TOI that there are many girls who qualify the IIT-JEE, but miss out from joining an IIT. "The cut-off for girls now will be relaxed and they will be chosen over boys who are slightly ahead of them in the merit list. This will bring about a balance on campus,” he added.

IITs are supposed to publish a separate list for girls after authorities see the percentage of girls who have got admission through the common merit list. This means if a specific IIT's common merit list has only 8% per cent girl students, the institute will have to come up with an extra girls-only merit list, making sure their percentage on the campus goes up to 14 per cent

IITs increasing number of admissions to let in more girls

There has been a decline in women candidates at the premier engineering institution of the country. The number of female students at IITs has dropped considerably in the last two years. According to a report by TOI, around 8.8% women were admitted to IITs in 2014. The figure went up to 9% in 2015, but in 2016, it came down to 8%. A senior HRD ministry official had said the decline may be due to the fact that girls are not encouraged enough to join coaching for engineering and opt for this career stream.

In a move aimed at encouraging women students to take up engineering, IIT Bhubaneswar has decided to add 22 extra seats for women in its various BTech courses from the academic session 2018-19. With this decision, the authorities aim to counter the wide gender gap that exists in engineering colleges. With these additional seats, the total seat count for BTech courses will increase from 350 to 372 here.