This year, the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, (NIT-C), has attracted admissions from more foreign students in undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes with the number of applicants showing a quantum jump. Compared to the previous year, the number of applicants is over 10 times this year.
A total of 283 foreign students have applied for B.Tech and B.Arch courses, 108 for M.Tech and M.Plan and 18 for Ph.D. programmes this year, whereas last year, there were just 40 applicants in totality, including 30 for undergraduate programmes.
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According to Prof. Lity Alen Varghese, chairperson, UG Admissions and Dr. G. Sreelekha, chairperson, PG Admissions, most of the applicants this year are from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, Ghana, Vietnam, Syria and a few from European Union (EU). The applications for the courses by the foreign students were made online via the Indian Council for Cultural Relations ( ICCR), which is an autonomous body under the Ministry of External External Affairs (MEA).
While the quota for undergraduate programmes was 16, the number of seats allotted in the post-graduate and the Ph.D. categories were 36 and 15 respectively.
“We have shortlisted candidates and the list has been submitted to the ICCR. The majority of the B.Tech aspirants have opted for computer science and electronics disciplines,” Prof. Varghese said.
The candidates, however, chose conventional streams with regard to the M.Tech courses, including civil, mechanical and electrical engineering.
“The shortlisted candidates for both postgraduate and Ph.D. programmes will be submitted to the ICCR shortly,” Dr. Sreelekha said.
Only nine students, including one from Botswana, were admitted to the B.Tech course in the ICCR scheme last year. Further, two candidates were sponsored under the welfare scheme of the MEA. Only two out of four shortlisted candidates for the M.Tech course ended up joining last year.
Dr. P. S. Sathidevi, Director-in-charge, NITC, said that among possible reasons that could have attracted such a massive number of foreign students are the ranking of the institute that stood at 23rd in the engineering and 3rd in the architecture category at the national level. Another reason could be the increase in scholarships and facilities at the institute.
