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After girls, IITs to have quota for foreign students

The decision has been taken to improve international rankings of IITs

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After creating supernumerary quota for girls, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are going to have reservation for foreign students in PhD and M.Tech admissions.

This is being done to improve the number of foreign students in IITs, which is currently just one percent of the total students. Last year, IITs had approved reservation for girls in order to address the gender parity in these institutions.

The decision to introduce foreign students' quota was discussed in the meeting of IITs and Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) with the President, who is the Visitor of these institutes, on Tuesday.

According to sources, this move has also been taken in order to improve international rankings of IITs. Currently, there are only one percent foreign students across all IITs and the Ministry of Human Resource Development wants to take this number higher in order to improve the position of IITs in world rankings.

"Currently IITs get just one percent of foreign students, which is why they always lag behind in parameters for foreign students and rank behind other institutions in world rankings. It is important for IITs to have more foreign students to improve their international rankings," said a senior official who was a part of the meeting, adding that all IITs agreed to the plan and the modalities will be worked out.

The ministry is also going to launch scholarships for students from ASEAN countries for admission to IITs. This was earlier discussed in a meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with all the heads of ASEAN countries around Republic Day.

Other issues that were discussed in the meeting included financing through HEFA where IITs raised their concerns about raising funds through the scheme and recruitment of foreign faculty. Ways to ease visa norms for foreign faculty, which has always been an issue for IITs when it comes to recruitment of foreigners, was also discussed in the meeting.

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