In a bid to attract more foreign students, IITs for the first time will be conducting entrance tests in eight countries including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Singapore and Dubai

Updated on: Tuesday, February 23, 2016

iit In a bid to attract more foreign students, IITs for the first time will be conducting entrance tests in eight countries including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Singapore and Dubai, next year to select students for both undergraduate and postgraduate posts.

"The entrance tests to the IITs abroad have been held till now only to admit Indian nationals. This is for the first time that it has been planned to admit foreign students through tests held abroad. It is aimed that the plan would be operationalised from the JEE/GATE exams to be conducted in 2017," a senior HRD Ministry official told PTI.

The students will be selected through a common entrance exam, which would be administered by the IIT with the help of Indian missions in these countries.

Officials, however, added that seats to be offered to foreign nationals would be supernumerary or additional in nature and would not reduce those available to Indian nationals at the 18 IITs.

The foreign students will have to shell out more fees as the subsidised fee, which Indian students pay, would not be applicable to them.

The officials further said that to facilitate these foreign students, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will consider giving them research visa for the duration of the programme rather than one year at a time.

While the test is scheduled to be held in 2017, the outreach programme for the exercise would begin from August this year and will be conducted in all these eight countries. IIT Mumbai has been asked to prepare the necessary information material for this outreach. It would include details of the tests, the courses and FAQs. A web portal might be created for this purpose, sources said.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) will be the nodal agency on behalf of the MEA for these tests.

Earlier, the IIT-M Director had prepared a report on a comprehensive system to attract international students to the IITs. After the report was prepared, Khakhar was asked to prepare a detailed plan for conducting JEE and GATE exams abroad.

It is believed that the government is keen on more foreign students studying at the IITs as it could boost their international academic rankings.

In a bid to attract more foreign students, IITs for the first time will be conducting entrance tests in eight countries including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Singapore and Dubai

More Education news