Ranchi, April 16: The Dhanbad-based Indian School of Mines University (ISMU) will increase 144 seats from this academic session in various undergraduate and postgraduate courses, entry for which is primarily through IIT-JEE.

Besides, over the next three years — the cut-off set by the Supreme Court to enforce 27 per cent OBC quota in central educational institutions — ISMU will witness an overall increase of 54 per cent seats, ISMU director Tarkeshwar Kumar told The Telegraph over phone from Delhi.

During a meeting of the IIT-JEE advisory board in Delhi today, all the finer points about future admission procedures were finalised. The meeting was chaired by the director of IIT-Roorkee, which is conducting the JEE this year, and was attended by, among others, Kumar.

ISMU seat increase will also cater to courses offered by the institute — admissions for these are through the university. ISMU, which offered 2,000 seats in various under-graduate and postgraduate courses in 2007-08, was now slated to offer about 2,300 seats from the 2008-09 session. The increase of 144 seats would be over and above the 2,300 seats. This means, there would be 2,444 seats on offer for aspiring under-graduate and postgraduate students this session (2008-09) .

As fas as the coveted undergratuate, five-year M Sc Tech and five-year dual degree programmes are concerned — entry is entirely through IIT-JEE — there will be an increase of 61 seats this year from last year's 668. Of the increased 61 seats, 44 will be reserved for OBCs, while the remaining for general, ST and SC category students.