The Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology will have to admit students through the JEE-Main this year, the ministry of human resource development has said in a letter to the institute in early January.

The Shibpur institute had requested the Centre to allow it to admit students through the JEE-Advanced like the IITs.

In October it had become evident that the IIEST would not be able to use the JEE-Advanced rankings because it did not feature on the list released by IIT-Bombay, which will conduct the exams this year.

The IIT had released a list of institutes which would admit students through the JEE-Advanced. The IIEST used to admit students based on Bengal JEE rankings before it was upgraded from the Bengal Engineering and Science University.

The JEE Advanced is the second tier - the first being the JEE Main - of the all-India test for admissions to IITs. But one has to clear the JEE-Main to take the JEE-Advanced test for admission to any one of the 16 IITs. A candidate seeking to crack the JEE-Advanced exam should be among the top 1,50,000 in the JEE-Main 2015.

The NITs (National Institute of Technology) and some other institutes admit students through the JEE-Main. Apart from the IITs, the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad, the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology in Rae Bareli, the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore use the JEE-Advanced to admit students.

The IIEST executive council had decided in June to opt for the JEE-Advanced and the council's resolution was forwarded to the ministry.

An education department official said the IIEST has been included in the NIT council and NITs admit students through the JEE-Main, conducted by the CBSE. So, the institute has been asked to admit students through the JEE-Main, he said.

The IIEST will select candidates based on their JEE-Main ranking and Class XII board exam marks. CBSE will conduct the JEE-Main exams on April 4, 10 and 11 this year in off-line and online modes.

'We've been told to admit students through the JEE-Main from this year,' said IIEST acting-director Ajoy Kumar Ray. The ministry has, however, not commented on the institute's proposal to keep aside 50 per cent of the seats for students from Bengal from the 2015-16 academic session.

The IIEST authorities have decided to seek another clarification from the ministry regarding the proposed reservation. 'The issue would be taken up in the first meeting of the board of governors, the highest decision-making body, scheduled for February 14,' said Roy.

On December 23 last year, the ministry had issued a notification announcing the formation of the board,marking the formal completion of its upgrade from a state university to a central institute. The board, which has replaced the executive council and court, is now the sole decision-making body of the institute.

'The Centre had wanted chief secretary Sanjay Mitra to be the state nominee. But we want higher education secretary Vivek Kumar,' an IIEST official said. 'Whoever represents the state is expected to raise the issue of reservation.'