International students can take up JEE exam next year

IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance Examination), which is conducted to offer admission to engineering courses for Indian and Indian expat students is going ahead to widen its horizon by opening its doors for international students from the upcoming year.

To mark its presence across the globe, now Indian Instituties of Technology are planning to conduct JEE-entrance exam simultaneously in 10 countries.

Recently, the IIT council granted approval to hold the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) entrance exam in 10 countries, which enables Indian and international students to appear for exam on the same day.

List of participating countries:

The participating countries include seven SAARC nations (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives), UAE, Ethiopia and Singapore.

So far, JEE exam was conducted in West Asian countries, wherein only Indian expat students were allowed to appear for the exam. Students, who were qualified in the first round would come down to India to write second round of examination.

Following recent developments in IIT-JEE entrance exam, Indian expat students and international students will be able take up the exam with Indian counterparts.

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According to Bangalore Mirror reports, "Nearly 10 percent of the seats will be reserved for foreign students. To ensure that the Indian students should not lose out, there is also a proposal to add about 10,000 more undergraduate seats."

More than 5 lakh students appear for the exam every year, out of which 10,000 plus students are shortlisted.

Outreach programme:

Besides, the council has initiated an outreach programme, which is first of its kind. IIT-Bombay will lead the programme that aims at drawing attention of more and more international students to take admission in IITs.

"We will be actively canvassing for foreign students to join for two reasons, one it will give our institutions a more cosmopolitan outlook and second it will improve our overall ranking," said the senior official, who is privy to developments.

During canvassing programme the authorities will also be examining the fee structure for foreign students. HRD Ministry has sent a proposal to ministry of home affairs to look into the same so that the international students undergo scrutiny before processing student visa.

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