IIT Madras admits five students under ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ category

New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has admitted five athletes with national accomplishments under its ‘Sports Excellence Admission’ (SEA) category for the academic year 2024-2025.

In February 2024, IIT Madras became the first IIT in the country to introduce admissions for sportspersons under SEA category in its undergraduate programmes. This initiative is offered through two supernumerary seats in each of its undergraduate programs for Indian nationals, of which one will be reserved for female students.

The admission process for SEA is based on the JEE examination and requires candidates to qualify for JEE (Advanced). However, admissions will not be conducted through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) portal but through a separate portal managed by IIT Madras.

To be eligible for admission under SEA, candidates must qualify in the JEE (Advanced), secure a position in common or category-wise rank list, and have won at least one medal in a national or international sports competition within the last four years. A separate Sports Rank List (SRL) will be created based on their performance in specific sports, which will determine seat allotment.

A maximum of two athletes are from Delhi out of the five athletes admitted under SEA category during 2024-25 academic year. The other three athletes include one each from Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. These athletes, excelling in sports such as volleyball, table tennis, squash, lawn tennis, and swimming, secured their admission by successfully clearing the Joint Entrance Examination-Advanced (JEE-Advanced) like other students at this premier institution.

“The sports excellence admission is an initiative of IIT Madras primarily to send the important message that young children must be encouraged to play during their childhood. I sincerely hope this reaches to all concerned,” Prof. V. Kamakoti, director of IIT Madras said in a press statement.

Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Emeritus), IIT Madras, said, “We had several applications but finally, we were able to admit five students of excellent standing and yet academically qualified. They have passed JEE (Advanced), like any other IIT student. In that sense, there is no compromise on the relative quality of academic merit that is expected but at the same time, rewards sports pursuit and excellence.”

Five athletes who have been selected for admission at IIT Madras are -- Arohi Bhave (volleyball player) from Maharashtra and admitted into BS (medical sciences and engineering); Aryaman Mandal (water polo and swimming) from West Bengal and admitted into BTech (computer science and engineering); Nandini Jain (squash player) from Delhi and admitted into B Tech (computer science and engineering), Prabhav Gupta (table tennis player) from Delhi and admitted into B Tech (artificial intelligence and data science); and Vangala Vedavachan Reddy (lawn tennis player) from Andhra Pradesh and admitted into B Tech (artificial intelligence and data science).

Mandal, one of the five selected athletes said, “Besides my sports career, I also had an interest in the technical field. IIT Madras has proved to be one of the best colleges all over India. I would say that is the reason I chose IIT Madras. In college, managing sports and studies is not that easy but I have my friends who help me with my studies, whenever I have doubts.”