Women candidates recorded their highest qualification rate in JEE Advanced in six years in 2026, with the number of qualifiers crossing 10,000 for the first time, according to the Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) report released by IIT Roorkee.

The qualification rate among registered women candidates rose to 23.4 per cent in 2026, compared with 21.7 per cent in 2025. Of the 43,112 women who registered, 40,562 appeared in both papers and 10,107 qualified.

The report said 3,814 female-only seats, including female supernumerary seats, were allotted, while 37 female candidates secured seats through the gender-neutral pool.

The qualification rates for SC and ST candidates also increased by 9.8 and 8.1 percentage points, respectively. The number of SC qualifiers rose from 12,499 in 2025 to 15,856 in 2026, while ST qualifiers increased from 5,008 to 6,379.

A total of 1,79,694 candidates appeared in both papers of JEE Advanced 2026, held on May 17, with 56,880 candidates qualifying. The results were declared on June 1.

The number of general category qualifiers fell from 16,154 in 2025 to 15,883 in 2026, while the qualification rate declined from 43 per cent to 39.8 per cent. EWS qualifiers increased from 6,291 to 6,377.

Among OBC-NCL candidates, the qualification rate declined from 18.2 per cent to 17.5 per cent, while the number of qualifiers fell from 12,606 to 12,385.

The JIC report said qualifying criteria were relaxed to ensure that at least twice the number of candidates qualified compared with the available seats in each category.

JEE Advanced ranks will also be used for undergraduate admissions to institutions outside the IIT system, including IISc Bengaluru, IIM Lucknow, the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy, the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology.

Inputs from PTI

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