IIT-Hyderabad opens doors for innovators beyond JEE toppers

IIT Hyderabad will offer admissions from 2026–27 to students with award-winning innovative school projects, creating 30–40 extra seats, while still requiring JEE qualification and supporting innovation development

Sangareddy:  Worrying over your kids’ JEE score to get admission in the prestigious Indian Institute of Technologies? Not any more.

If your kid had developed any innovative project that topped national, and state level competitions during his high school days, the Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (IITH) would be a destination for your child. The IITH has decided to provide admissions to such talented students from 2026-27 academic year onwards, framing guidelines for admissions in this category.

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Speaking to Telangana Today, IITH Director Prof BS Murty said that they have decided to create 30 to 40 supernumerary seats from this academic year to provide admissions to such students. However, he said that the qualification in the JEE examination is a must for them too.

Usually, the students would get admission based on their JEE (Advanced) examination score where only toppers would stand a chance. However, Prof Murty said that some talented students were not getting into the IITs because of their poor score in JEE. For such students, he said that the IITH wanted to offer admissions based on the innovative projects they have developed during their high school days.

The Director said that the projects must have won in some national and state level competitions, which they were going to list out soon. Even after getting into the IITH, Prof Murty said that they would extend financial support to such students to develop their ideas into products.
“We wanted to see our hostel rooms turn into garages for students where they can work on ideas day in and day out”, he informed. He said that they would believe that the country which manufactures products will become a developed country, not just offering services.