Entrance exams for admissions to the Indian Institutes of Technology will go completely online from 2018. This policy making body of IITs, the Joint Admission Board, has decided to conduct the Joint Entrance Exams (Advanced) online from next year.

The decision was made at a meeting in IIT-Madras on Sunday, said JAB Chairperson Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi. A member of the board said that the move will make logistics and evaluations easier.

“The concept was being discussed for many years, but it was necessary to have adequate infrastructure to conduct the exam online,” the member said, according to PTI.

Students aspiring to enter IITs have to first clear the JEE (Main) and then sit for JEE (Advanced). JEE (Main) is already conducted online.

Based on the 2017 JEE (Main) rankings, 2.20 lakh candidates appeared for JEE (Advanced), of which only 1.70 lakh candidates took the exam. As many as 10.20 lakh students had appeared for the JEE (Main) exam this year.