Dream of pursuing higher education abroad prompts more candidates to take GRE

Updated on: Friday, January 25, 2013

A weak job market and the dream of pursuing higher education abroad prompted more candidates to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) in 2012. There was a 30% increase in the number of candidates taking the test across India compared to the year before. Close to 85,000 candidates took the test in 2012, compared to 65,000 in 2011.

Educational Testing Services, which administers GRE, said 2012 recorded the second highest number of test takers since the test began. "Registrations for the revised test were slow at the beginning of 2012, but began to climb from August, exceeding expectations for that period," said David Payne, vice-president and chief operating officer for the higher education division at ETS.

Experts estimate that one tenth of the candidates are from Chennai.Delhi and Hyderabad send most number of candidates, followed by Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai. Coaching institutes that train candidates said the test was popular among two segments-engineering, medical and pharmacy graduates, and those who want to pursue a management degree.

With more than 500 engineering colleges in the state,in addition to IIT-Madras, the numbers from the state are likely to keep increasing. At least 15% of students in an institution are looking to pursue higher education.

Anand Kannan, managing director of online academyGREedge.com said, "The problem with India is that the number of high quality institutions is limited. Our best institutes are only comparable with those in the middle ranks globally. A graduate intent on pursuing higher education is 30 to 50 times more likely to get a seat in a good institution abroad."

Over the last few years, there has been increased interest in GRE among working professionals between 21 and 28 years, he said. "The job market is tight. Professionals find that growth in the company is not as fast as it used to be, and that having a specialized degree makes it easier to find a job.

K Ramnath,GRE course director for TIME, said the rise could be attributed to the fact that more than 1,000 B-schools have started accepting GRE scores for admission. In 2012, the number of graduate and business schools using GRE scores grew by more than 14%.

Administrative glitches are said to have affected around 2% of test takers in the country, with tests being rescheduled. Vaidhyanathan Raghavan, a final year engineering student said, "Such situations are not in my control. I plan to write to the university I am applying to consider this as a valid reason for the delay in producing scores."

Dream of pursuing higher education abroad prompts more candidates to take GRE

More Education news