JEE set to add US centre for foreign applicants to IITs
Though Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dhaka (Bangladesh),
Dubai (UAE), Kathmandu (Nepal) and Singapore were among foreign centres where
the IIT JEE (Advanced) 2019 exam was held, it has never been conducted in the
US.
Next year’s Joint
Entrance Examination (Advanced) for admission to the Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs) is likely to be held in San Francisco for the first time in a
move aimed at attracting students from the United States to India’s premier
engineering institutions, according to senior officials familiar with the
matter.
Though Addis Ababa
(Ethiopia), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Dubai (UAE), Kathmandu
(Nepal) and Singapore were among foreign centres where the IIT JEE (Advanced)
2019 exam was held, it has never been conducted in the US.
“There is a clear
tech link between India and the United States and the IIT system has been
receiving requests, including from the Silicon Valley area, regarding the
possibility of such a test. There is also a sizeable diaspora in the US, many
of them in the technology sector. So, a decision has been taken that a centre
will also be set up in San Francisco for the 2020 JEE (Advanced) test which is
likely to be held in the month of May,” said one of the senior officials cited
above who asked not to be named.
When contacted, V
Ramgopal Rao, the director of IIT-Delhi, said that the move was driven by IIT
alumni in the US.
“There are a lot of
Indians in the Bay Area in San Francisco. When one of our delegations visited
the US, the Indians there, including IIT alumni, expressed wish to get a chance
to let their children study in the IITs. So a decision has been taken to
include San Francisco in the list of centres,” Rao said.
“We are hoping that,
apart from the diaspora, other students in the US will also try to join the
IITs,” he added.
While Indian students
have to undergo a screening test in the JEE (Mains) exam, after which
shortlisted students can appear for IIT JEE (Advanced),foreign students can
directly take the second test for admission to the undergraduate course.
For next year’s exam,
about 250,000 Indian students will be shortlisted from the JEE (Advanced),
according to a third official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
There were a total of
13,604 undergraduate seats in all 23 IITs this year.
The move to take the
IIT entrance exam to the US also comes at a time when the Union government is
making strong efforts to get more foreign students to study in top Indian
colleges.
The human resources
development ministry has been making strong attempts to put Indian institutions
into the top rungs of the global higher education rankings. However, as ranking
surveys have repeatedly pointed out, internationalisation is a major area where
Indian institutions can perform better.
“I welcome this
reverse engineering in admissions. Most of our IITs are of global standards and
can be excellent centres for technology studies not only for students of Indian
diaspora but also students of the US and other countries. Many other reputed
engineering institutes in India like NITs,IIITs are of international standards
and have the potential of becoming hubs for attracting foreign students,” said
former UGC member Professor Inder Mohan Kapahy.
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