There will be no spot round of counselling after the fourth round for admission into IITs, NITs, IIIT and other government funded technical institutions (GFTI) this year.

This is because, unlike in previous years, there will be no cut-off marks for registration and choice filling of seats and institutions.

Till last year there was a cut-off for registration and choice filling and candidates who cleared JEE Mains cut-off were eligible for choice filling and registration. But from this year, students scoring more than "zero" marks in JEE mains can also participate in choice filling of seats and institutions for admission into IITs, NITs, IIITs, and other GFTI.

Supposing IIT Mains sets a cut-off of 65 marks out of 300, only then candidates scoring 65 or above would be eligible for choice filling and registration, but from this year there will no cut-off for choice filling and registration.

The decision was taken by Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA), consisting of representatives from Joint Admission Board (JAB)-2015 for IITs and ISM and Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB)-2015 for NITs, IIITs and GFTIs to oversee and implement joint seat allocation from academic year 2015-16. JoSAA convener is IIT Bombay director Prof Devang Khakhar. Members include NIT-Patna director Asok De and IIT-Kharagpur director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti.

Ashok De said: "Till the previous year, based on cut-off of JEE main, students were asked to make choice filling and registration for admission into IITs, NITs and other GFTIs. But, from this year, any student scoring above "zero" in JEE Mains can appear for counselling. But there is no guarantee they will get seats in IITs or NITs."

Also, as from this year there will be single counselling for admission into IITs, NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs, students apply at www.josaa.nic.in. The website would be launched by end of month, after declaration of JEE advanced results. Josaa will conduct counselling and allot institution and branch/programme for IITs, NITs, IIITs, and GFTIs.

As NIT-Patna is part of Josaa and has been given the task of Central Seat Allocation Board (CSAB) for admission of students into NITs, IIITs and GFTIs, it has issued some important guidelines. A candidate may be eligible for seat allocation based on JEE (Advanced 2015) and JEE (Mains 2015) results. De said: "From this year, candidates will be allocated only 'one' seat from among the choices they fill in. So it is important for candidates to carefully prioritise the academic programmes while filling in the choice."