MHRD to IITs: Foreign Students to Pay 6 Lakh Annual Fee!

The Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry that was considering revising the fee structure proposal for foreign students have now issued new directives to the IITs. From now onwards, foreign students selected at IITs through JEE Advanced/GATE examination will be required to pay INR six lakh per year as fees for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

The domestic students pay an approximate amount of INR two lakh per year. The reason behind this difference in fee structure was the need felt for international students to pay for the total expenditure incurred on their education, which comes down to INR six lakh.

Recently, the IIT council approved the proposal for IITs to reach out to the foreign lands in August this year, paving the way for JEE entrance tests to be conducted in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Nepal and Dubai. The test paper will be pen-paper based, just like the one held in India. The reason to invite and attract foreign students is to increase their revenue to a certain extent. In addition, it will help in making institutes diverse.

Currently, the foreign students visit IITs through student exchange programmes only. However, from the next year, the ministry has decided to offer seats to the international students on a supernumerary basis.

IITs- Effects of Attracting International Students

• Will help in enhancing the revenue of the institutes
• Help in diversifying IITs
• Help in promoting and improving diversification among students
• It will improve the global ranking of IITs

These parameters will help in improving the overall ranking of IITs in the global rankings.