CHENNAI: Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M), Kamakoti Veezhinathan on Tuesday launched the 'Sports Excellence Admission' for the academic year 2024-25.
Addressing reporters after the launch, Kamakoti said, "For the first time in history, seats have been reserved for sports students in Undergraduate courses. Sportspersons need a decent life if they want to win awards at the national level. We have started this now thinking that if we give them a chance from now on, they will improve. Students who seek admission in IIT-M must have secured 75 per cent marks in the Class XII board exam. We have now allocated 2 seats per UG course."
Introducing the point system to filter the students for the admission under sports quota, Kamakoti said, "At the international level, 100 points are allocated for the gold medalists, 90 points for silver, 80 points for bronze and 50 points for participating in the national level. Those points will also count towards admission. We will publish the rank list based on the above points and weightage for JEE Mains or Advanced and fill up the seats."
"In the upcoming AY 2024-25, the reservation would be given to the best in 13 sports including cricket, athletics, badminton, basketball, football and volleyball. We hope to fill all seats in 2 or 4 years. We provide tuition fee free to students whose income is below Rs 5 lakh pa," he noted.
Further, the IIT-M Director informed that most of the students studying in IITs are not going to the playground after Class VII and VIII.
"The question arises as to what kind of courses will be offered here to the students joining the sports department. We have created a sports research centre for that. We are also going to start sports courses," added Kamakoti.