IITs open doors for foreign students, allows them to take entrance exams

HRD Minister Smriti Irani has cleared a proposal to allow foreign students to take entrance examinations to enrol in IITs.

Aspirants will take Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) at the bachelor's level and the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) at the master's and PhD levels.

Irani, who is also chairperson of the IIT Council, has asked IITs to bring a proposal before the panel for approval.

The ministry wants to add 10,000 seats in 18 IITs to attract students from South Asia, Africa and West Asia.

To get admission, foreign students will have to pay full fees of Rs 4-5 lakh per year. Indian students pay Rs 90,000 per year as fee.

The onus to prepare JEE and GATE exams in countries abroad is on IIT-Bombay director Professor Devang V Khakhar.

Until now, foreign students could study in IITs through cultural exchange fellowship.

Also, this doesn’t mean that Indians will not get the preference as the number of seats for Indian students will not be changed.

Meanhwhile, IIT Bombay will identify countries as well as the institutes for conducting GATE and JEE 2016.