New Delhi, April 2: Around 90 centrally funded technology institutes, including the 23 IITs, will hold two more rounds of counselling this year after students have joined the institutes.

But state-level and private colleges have criticised the move, aimed at cutting vacancies caused largely by candidates who don't join after being allotted seats.

Over 3,000 of the 35,000 B.Tech seats in the 90 central colleges went vacant last year despite six rounds of joint counselling.

Several subsequent rounds of counselling are held to fill the seats vacated by those from previous stages who fail to take admission. "This year, there will be two additional rounds of counselling after the students report to the institutions," IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi told The Telegraph. IIT Madras is the organising institute for JEE-Advanced this year.

The JEE Main - the CBSE-conducted preliminary IIT entrance exam whose score is also used by the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and others for admission - was held today. The IITs hold JEE-Advanced separately for top 2.2 lakh scorers in the JEE Main.

Other institutes feared a hit from the additional rounds of counselling. "Some students in state-level and private institutions would withdraw to take admission in the IITs if selected in additional rounds of counselling. Those seats becoming vacant very late would remain unfilled. The IITs need to think holistically," said Dheeraj Sanghi, dean at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, a Delhi government institute.

Among the centrally funded technology institutes, 1,581 seats were vacant in the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs) and a few other institutes, besides 1,518 seats in the 31 NITs. The number was much lower for the 23 IITs at 96.

The central institutes hold five to six rounds of joint counselling every year. Candidates are asked to mark their preferences for courses and institutions. Depending on their rank, they are offered combinations of institutions and courses, from which they must pick one.

The students report to their institutions after all rounds of counselling are over - marking the completion of the admission process. Last year, for instance, the reporting date in the IITs was July 21. The counselling rounds were over by July 17.

Once the students join, they take part in an "orientation" course for almost a week during which they get acclimatised with the institute, labs and the hostels. This year, the IITs have proposed a two-week "induction" programme - a larger module that will also include elements like confidence-building and motivational lectures.

"The students joining late (after the extra counselling rounds) would not miss much academically. The induction programme would still be on when they join," Ramamurthi, the IIT Madras director, said.

However IIT sources said only a few of the tech schools had so far agreed to the "induction" course. This means students joining late could miss the shorter "orientation" course and some initial classes.

The Indian Institutions of Science Education and Research had moved a proposal to take part in the counselling with the IITs and others. The HRD ministry had agreed but Ramamurthi said the IISERs would not participate this year.