IIT's will conduct entrance tests in eight countries
including Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Singapore and Dubai, next year to select
students for both undergraduate and postgraduate posts. This is to attract foreign
students.
A senior HRD Ministry official said in this regard that this is the first time IITs will be conducting exams to admit foreign students as earlier it only admitted nationals. It is aimed that the plan would be operationalised from the JEE/GATE exams to be conducted in 2017.
A common entrance exam will be held to select students which would be administered by the IIT with the help of Indian missions in these countries.
This admission would not reduce the already available seats at IITs. Seats to be offered to foreign nationals would be supernumerary or additional in nature.
Indian students pay subsidized fees which would not be applicable to foreign students as they will have to shell out more fees.
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 to facilitate foreign students.
There will be an outreach programme for the test that will start from August this year despite the fact that the test will be held in 2017. It will be conducted in 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 and a web portal might be created for this purpose.
The nodal agency on behalf of MEA will be The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).
The IIT-M Director had prepared a report on a comprehensive system to attract international students to the IITs earlier, however, now Khakhar was asked to prepare a detailed plan for conducting JEE and GATE exams abroad.
All this is done to boost their international academic rankings.