Bhubaneswar, Jan. 7: The National Institute of Science Education and Research (Niser) here has increased its seat intake from 100 to 130, keeping in view the increasing number of applications every year.

Registration for the National Entrance Screening Test (NEST) for admission into Niser, Bhubaneswar, and University of Mumbai has commenced on January 4 and will continue till March 4. The university is set to admit students for its department of atomic energy centre for excellence in basic sciences.

The exam is scheduled to be held on May 28. This year, the entrance test will be held in 59 cities, which includes new centres such as Koraput, Trichy, Dhanbad, Durgapur, Gwalior, Vijaywada, Imphal and Coimbatore.

Unlike the previous batches, classes for the fresh batch of students would be held at Niser's new campus at Jatni, about 25km from here.

Last year, as many as 46,617 students appeared the exam from 76 centres across the country.

The entrance test will be held for admission to the five-year integrated MSc programme in basic sciences - biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics. Candidates will be screened for admission to 130 seats at Niser, Bhubaneswar, and 45 at CBS. Other institutions accepting NEST 2016 score are the Integrated Science Education and Research Centre and Visva Bharati in Bengal.

Those applying for NEST must have cleared higher secondary school (Class XII) from a recognised board or institute.

A record number of applications—45,088 had come in for NEST 2015 and nearly 500 students were competing for one seat.

"The increase in the number of applications over the past few years has been overwhelming. While the number of applications were around 24,000 in 2013, there were 33,500 applications in 2014 and around 45,000 in 2015. We, therefore, can safely infer that there has been an increase in demand for science subjects in general and Niser in particular," said chief co-ordinator, NEST 2016, Pranay K. Swain.