Why So Low 'JEE Advanced' Registrations This Year

The number of candidates registering for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE)-Advanced exam after passing the JEE-Mains exam have been falling over the last eight years, an inspection of data on the 2-tier framework of the exam since 2014 showed.

Marking a 9-year low, from 83.1 per cent in 2014 to 61.5 per cent students in 2022, about 1.6 lakh out of the 2.6 lakh qualified students have registered to take the exam to be held on August 28.

In 2021, 1.5 lakh out of the 2.6 lakh students (58.1 per cent) registered to write the final-level examination, which will decide admissions to 23 Indian Institutes of Technology across the country. At 64.1 per cent, the past year had 1.60 lakh candidates registering out of the 2.5 lakh students who qualified the Mains exam.

This is a striking downfall from 2014 when the registrations were at 83.1 per cent. A regular drop could be marked across the years at 79 per cent, 78.6 per cent, 77.4 per cent, 71.7 per cent and 71.7 per cent in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Experts understand this is happening because students select other engineering colleges on the basis of their JEE-Mains score and that this is not indicative of a lack of attraction in the IITs.

"JEE Mains is one of the toughest exams in India, ensuring admission in IITs, NITs, IIITs etc to all top JEE rankers. It has been losing great numbers of aspirants in last 5 years due to many reasons. Students are getting excellent education in premier private technical institutions based on respective entrance exams (without any reservation). So, the options have increased manifold thereby reducing dependency on JEE rank," emphasises Prof (Dr) Pardeep Kumar, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Dean - Engineering, MRIIRS.

"A number of private technical institutions have developed world class academic teaching learning process with experienced faculty, associated with top class academic and industry partners and state of the art infrastructure," he further adds.