New Delhi: While talks regarding the reforms in the Indian Institutes of Technology - Joint Entrance Examination (IIT - JEE) proposed by IIT-Kharagpur Director Damodar Acharya, are still going on, another proposal has been brought forth.

Professor of Computer Science at IIT-Kharagpur, Rajiv Kumar has suggested that a single examination to replace all engineering entrance tests such as the IIT-JEE, All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and other states boards' JEEs be replaced by one single examination.

According to Rajiv Kumar, after the common entrance examination, a student would be allotted a UID card and will have both all-India as well as a state rank.

On the other hand, Damodar Acharya had earlier suggested in a proposal submitted to the Human Resource Development Ministry to give 70% weightage to Class 12 qualifying examination marks for being eligible to appear for the IIT-JEE.

"A single entrance examination for all engineering institutes must be implemented. A single all-India level as well as state level merit list should be prepared which would then allow a student to seek admission in any engineering college including the IITs, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER), National Institutes of Technology (NIT), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIIT), states and others," Kumar said.

Another suggestion by Rajiv Kumar is that instead of there being one-time examination, there should be three sittings of the same examination that are conducted thrice over a fortnight or month. For the final ranking, an aggregate score of the three sittings of the examination should be considered.

He further added that the tests should be conducted for the four subjects of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Aptitude, with equal weightage given to all four of them.

He also said that there must be add-on tests for additional skills for specific courses such as architecture, town-planning, design etc.