Chennai: IIT Madras has introduced a new admission scheme for undergraduate programs starting in the academic year 2025-26, making it the first IIT in India to offer 'Fine Arts and Culture Excellence' (FACE) admission. The scheme aims to recognize and reward students who have excelled in fine arts and cultural activities.

As part of the FACE scheme, IIT Madras will allocate two supernumerary seats per undergraduate program, with one seat designated for female candidates and the other being gender-neutral. These seats will be available for students applying to all B.Tech and B.S. programs at IIT Madras.

Candidates eligible for the FACE admission scheme include Indian nationals, as well as Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO), who register for JEE (Advanced) 2025 and choose to be treated as Indian nationals. The admission process for FACE will take place through a dedicated portal (https://jeeadv.iitm.ac.in/face), which is separate from the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) portal.

For the 2025-2026 academic year, only IIT Madras will be offering seats through the FACE admission scheme. The portal, IITM-FACE, will be exclusive to IIT Madras and will handle all admissions under this scheme. Applicants will also need to apply separately for other IIT programs through the JoSAA portal, where seats are allocated based on standard admissions criteria.

Eligibility Criteria

To apply for the FACE admission scheme, candidates must meet the following requirements:

• Be an Indian National or OCI/PIO who opts to be treated as an Indian National during JEE (Advanced) 2025 registration.
• Qualify in JEE (Advanced) 2025 and obtain a rank in the Common Rank List (CRL) or in the category-wise rank list.
• Meet the minimum academic qualifications as per the eligibility criteria for IITs.
• To have achieved recognition in more or less one of the selected categories of fine-arts or cultural-excellence.

Application Process and Seat Allocation

Candidates applying for FACE admission must prepare all required documents before applying on the IITM-FACE portal. Each applicant will be scored based on their achievements in fine arts and culture, with a separate FACE Rank List (FRL) being generated. The seat allotment process will be conducted in multiple rounds, and candidates will be ranked according to their performance in various cultural and fine arts events, awards, or scholarships.

After being allotted a seat, candidates can either accept or decline the offer. If they accept the seat, they will need to pay the Seat Acceptance Fee and either "Freeze" or "Slide" their seat allocation, similar to the JoSAA process. Candidates who reject the offer will be removed from further consideration in the FACE admission process.

This new initiative by IIT Madras aims to foster a diverse and culturally enriched environment at one of India's top educational institutions.