UCEED Exam Eligibility Criteria 2026: Age Limit, Attempts, Qualification, Marks

UCEED age limit 2026

The prescribed UCEED exam age limit for 2026 is expected to be that the candidate must be born on/after October 1, 2001. This is the UCEED exam age limit for candidates belonging to OPEN/EWS/OBC-NCL category. The candidates belonging to SC/ST/PwD have an age relaxation of 5 (five) years and must be born on/after October 1, 1996. In order to get into the UCEED colleges, the candidates must fulfil the UCEED eligibility criteria 2026.

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UCEED entrance exam eligibility 2026: Number of Attempts

The UCEED entrance exam eligibility criteria states that the candidates will be able to appear for the UCEED entrance exam 2026 only for twice as maximum attempts. The candidates can appear only twice that too in consecutive year. The marks obtained in UCEED exam are valid only for a single year.

UCEED entrance exam eligibility criteria 2026: Qualifying Exam

The UCEED eligibility criteria 2026 in terms of qualifying examination is expected to be that the candidates must have passed all the subjects in the qualifying examination which is class 12th or equivalent in the year 2025. Or should be appearing for the qualifying examination for the first time in the year 2026. The candidate from any stream, i.e. science, commerce and arts or humanities are considered for UCEED entrance exam eligibility 2026. Those who have appeared for the first time their qualifying examination that is class 12th in 2024 or before that are not eligible for UCEED 2026.

• Final examination of 10 + 2 system conducted by Central or State Board recognised by an association of Indian Universities

• Intermediate or two-year Pre-University examination conducted by a Board or University recognised by the Association of Indian Universities (www.aiu.ac.in)

• Final examination of the two-year course of the Joint Services Wing of the National Defence Academy.

• Senior Secondary School Examination conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling with a minimum of five subjects.

• Any Public School, Board or University examination in India or a foreign country recognised as equivalent to the 10+2 system by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU)

• H.S.C. vocational examination.

• General Certificate of Education (GCE) examination (London, Cambridge or Sri Lanka) at the Advanced (A) level.

• High School Certificate Examination of the Cambridge University or International Baccalaureate Diploma of the International Baccalaureate Office, Geneva.

• Candidates who have completed Class XII (or equivalent) examination outside India or from a Board not specified above should produce a certificate from the Association of Indian Universities to the effect that the examination they have passed is equivalent to the Class XII examination.

• In case the Class XII examination is not a public examination, the candidate must have already passed at least one public (Board or Pre-University) examination before appearing for UCEED exam date 2026.

• Additionally a Diploma recognized by the All-India Council for Technical Education (www.aicteindia.org) or a State Board of Technical Education of at least THREE years duration is also acceptable. It is important to note that the eligibility criteria of the participating Institutes may not consider candidates with a Diploma of three-year duration so it is advised that the candidates check the college's eligibility before applying.

UCEED entrance exam eligibility to apply for BDes

The prerequisites for each college varies as per the qualifying examinations. The aspiring candidates need to check the UCEED eligibility 2026 criteria pdf of the participating institutes before filling in the UCEED application form to ensure that no mistake is made.

• The candidate should have passed all five subjects in the qualifying examination (Class XII or equivalent) in 2025 or 2026. Those who appeared for the first time in their qualifying examination in 2024 or earlier are not eligible.

• Candidates from the Science Stream (at 10+2 level) with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as subjects are eligible to apply to all the six participating institutes (IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Roorkee and IIITDM Jabalpur). Candidates from any other stream (Science without Mathematics or Physics or Chemistry, Commerce, and Arts & Humanities) are eligible to apply to IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, and IIT Hyderabad.

• Admission to the B.Tech. in Design programme at IIT Delhi will be based on JEE (Advanced) rankings. However, the aspirants will also have to qualify in UCEED. For admission to BDes at IIITDM Jabalpur, only students with Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics/Biology at 10+2 can apply. Students from Commerce, Arts or Humanities at 10+2 are not eligible to apply for BDes admissions at IIITDM Jabalpur. Candidates from the Science Stream with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics as subjects are eligible to apply to IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee. Candidates from any other stream (Science without Mathematics or Physics or Chemistry, Commerce, and Arts & Humanities) will not be eligible to apply to IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee.

• The candidates appearing for their qualifying examination (Class XII or equivalent) in 2026 should ensure that, (a) all parts of their final examination are completed by the date of application for admission, and (b) proof of having passed the qualifying examination with required eligibility should be submitted by September 30, 2026 (tentatively) to the admitting institute. If a qualifying Examination Board awards only letter grades without providing information on the passing grade on the grade sheet, the candidate should obtain a certificate from the Board specifying the passing grade and upload it along with the grade sheet. In case such a certificate is not provided, the decision taken by the UCI Committee will be final.

• The criteria, as specified above, are applicable “in toto” to all the applicants, including foreign nationals. Seats allotted to foreign nationals are supernumerary, with a cap of 10% of the total seats in a program. Applications from foreign nationals holding OCI/PIO cards issued before March 4, 2022 will only be considered under the OPEN category. They are outside the ambit of seat reservation under the EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, and ST categories.

Is Maths compulsory for UCEED 2026

Maths has not been compulsory to join the B.Des programme and UCEED entrance exam eligibility criteria for IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi and IIT Hyderabad. Maths is not compulsory as per the UCEED eligibility criteria for appearing the UCEED entrance exam 2026 for these three institutes. Students from all streams are eligible to appear for the UCEED exam and can take admission in the above mentioned IITs. However, for institutions like IIITDM Jabalpur requires a science stream with physics, chemistry and biology/mathematics for admissions. IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee require only science stream students with mathematics as a compulsory subject.

UCEED 2026 Seat Reservation Criteria

The candidates of reserved categories are expected to have seat reservation in UCEED 2026. As the official brochure of UCEED 2026 is yet to be released, meanwhile candidates can check the previous year UCEED seat reservation criteria which is as follows.

• General category belonging to Economically Weaker Section (GEN-EWS) – 10%
• Other Backward Classes belonging to the Non-Creamy Layer (OBC-NCL) – 27%
• Candidates belonging to the creamy layer of OBC are NOT entitled to reservation. Those candidates will be treated as GEN, i.e. unreserved category, and will be eligible only for the OPEN category seats.
• Scheduled Caste (SC) – 15%
• Scheduled Tribe (ST) – 7.5%
• Persons with Disability (PwD) – 5% seats in each of OPEN, GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, and ST category seats.

UCEED Application Form 2026

The UCEED 2026 application form is expected to be released in October 2025. The UCEED exam eligibility criteria pdf will be made available on the IIT Bombay official website. The UCEED 2026 notification will be updated with important dates for UCEED 2026. The candidates need to fill the UCEED application form 2026, upload the documents, and make payment of the application fee to register for UCEED 2026.

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