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.
Tags: Iit
Education Times
Foreign Students
Hrd Ministry
