New Delhi: The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), in its latest guidelines, has announced supernumerary seats reserved for ‘gifted’ students. These students can secure admission to the reserved seats without taking the entrance exam. This is likely to take effect from the upcoming academic year onwards.
Supernumerary seats are seats which are over and above the sanctioned intake approved by the appropriate authority and the Government.
AICTE has instructed specific institutions to keep aside at least two seats for the gifted students. Those who are selected to these seats need not pay any tuition fee. However, they have to pay other fees, if there are any.
The AICTE states that the proposed scheme aims to encourage not the bright students but the gifted ones. The applicant should submit recommendation letters from at least three experts, validating their talents and achievements. Selected candidates must attend the interview too before the final admission.
Who is eligible?
AICTE considers a candidate as a gifted student if they meet at least one of the following prerequisites. The applicant must be a prize winner in at least one national or international competition. They should have received research funding from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) , National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Ministry of Education, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Science and Technology and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
Students who have received funding from global multinational companies like Google, IBM, Tesla and Microsoft, any student whose research article has been published in journals that are recognised under University Grants Commission’s CARE-2 category, those who holds a patent and any student who has developed a start–up or a mobile application that has grabbed international attention are eligible to apply for this project.
(CARE denotes Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics.)