IIT Madras introduces FINE ARTS AND CULTURE EXCELLENCE quota in UG courses

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has become the first IIT in the country to introduce ‘Fine Arts and Culture Excellence’ (FACE) Admission to Undergraduate Programs from the Academic year 2025 - 26. The objective of FACE admission is to reward and encourage students who have achieved excellence in fine arts and culture.

No. of seats: Under the FACE quota, 2 supernumerary seats per program are being offered for Indian Nationals and OCI/PIO candidates who have chosen to be treated at par with Indian nationals at the time of JEE (Advanced) 2025 registration. The FACE admission will be operational from the academic year 2025-2026.

List of arts and cultural activities & weightage thereof

The candidate should be qualified in JEE (Advanced) 2025 and have obtained a rank in the Common Rank List (CRL) or category-wise rank list in JEE (Advanced) 2025.

In order to claim seats under the FACE quota:

a) candidate must have received an award that is given once-in-a-lifetime for an art form given by the government of India (listed below).

b) must have at least one of the recognitions in category A or category B in the list of awards/recognition/fellowships (listed below) in the last SIX years.

Category “One-Time”, Weightage 100 points

a) Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar under Arts and Culture awarded by Ministry of Women and Child Empowerment, Government of India

b) National Bal Shree Honour in creative performance, creative art, creative painting awarded by Ministry of Education, Government of India

c) National Youth Award under Art/Culture awarded by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India

d) Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar awarded by Sangeet Natak Akademi , Government of India

Category “A”, weightage 75 points

a) Active B-grade certification from All India Radio or Doordarshan, Prasar Bharati, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India during the last SIX years.

b) Empaneled Artists to perform in Indian Festivals Abroad by the Government of India in the last SIX years

c) Award of Scholarship to Young Artists (SYA), Ministry of Culture, Government of India

d) Award in National Youth Festival Competition in the stage 4 where the presentation (in the domain of Arts and Culture) is made to the Prime Minister.

Category “B”, weightage 50 points

a)Cultural Talent Search Scholarship Award (CCRT), Ministry of Culture, GoI.

Admission & application process for FACE quota admissions

The admission process through FACE will not be through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) portal but on a separate portal https://jeeadv.iitm.ac.in/face maintained by IIT Madras, where other IITs interested in offering seats through FACE may also participate. For the academic year 2025-2026, only IIT Madras is offering seats through Fine Arts and Culture Excellence admission.

IITM-FACE portal is to be used exclusively for admission to various academic programs at IIT Madras under FACE admission only. The candidates are required to apply separately on JoSAA portal for the academic programs at IIT Madras and/or other IITs where the seats are offered through JoSAA.

IITM-FACE-BROCHURE