Under the ‘Fine Arts and Culture Excellence’ admissions, two supernumerary seats have been created in all B.Tech and B.S. programmes. | Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ

IIT-M to admit those who excel in fine arts to undergraduate courses

An exclusive ‘IIT-M Fine Arts and Culture Excellence’ portal and rank list will be generated. It will open on June 2, 2025 and close on June 8, 2025

by · The Hindu

The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) will start ‘Fine Arts and Culture Excellence’ (FACE) admissions to undergraduate programmes from the academic year 2025-26.

Two supernumerary seats have been created in all B.Tech and B.S. programmes. There are 14 different departments offering around 17 different courses, said V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT-M.

Last year, IIT-M had the ‘Sports Excellence Admission’, wherein students who did performed exceptionally in sports, won competitions at the national level, and won or participated in international competitions were given two seats — one gender neutral and another for women. This time, the institute is extending this scheme to excellence in fine arts and culture, said Mr. Kamakoti.

Parents only want to prioritise education, so many children are unable to pursue their interests and hobbies, such as photography or music. Children should not feel bad about missing out on these later in life, he said. “We need innovation and entrepreneurship, and for that, we certainly need creativity. We believe strongly that fine arts and culture will bring that creativity to the forefront. We want to recognise this talent among people who aspire to have an engineering career and excel in arts at the same time,” Mr. Kamakoti said.

“The candidate should have qualified in JEE (Advanced) 2025 and have obtained a rank in the Common Rank List (CRL) or category-wise rank list in JEE (Advanced) 2025. The position in the rank list may be in any of the categories for which rank lists are prepared, thereby ensuring that the benefits of reservations are not lost and the requisite academic requirement is not diluted,” said a press release from IIT-M.

This aside, they should have received one of the awards, scholarships, or recognitions (listed on https://jeeadv.iitm.ac.in/face/). An exclusive ‘IIT-M FACE’ portal and a rank list will be generated. It will open on June 2, 2025 and close on June 8, 2025, Mr. Kamakoti said.

“This will increase the diversity on campus and bring a new set of people who have demonstrated their creativity and a lot of new ideas. We are introducing a lot of art and culture centric courses as part of this programme, including creative arts, creative designs, and music. While they have to study the regular core courses from the disciplines they have chosen, they will have a lot of options when it comes to electives,” he added.

Published - December 17, 2024 06:51 pm IST