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IIT Kharagpur is offering a range of scholarships to boost the presence of foreign students in its campus. The Institute has set up various scholarship programs funded by its alumni in addition to scholarships offered by Indian Council for Cultural Relations and MHRD’s Study in India program. With this new emphasis on financial aid, the Institute received close to 220 applications from foreign students this year for various degree programs.
Countries from which students applied
The Institute received applications from SAARC countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, two ASEAN countries, Vietnam, Laos, and two from Latin America – Colombia, Venezuela, a large number of African countries namely Madagascar, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Angola, Sudan, the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, the Pacific island of Fiji, Middle Eastern nations including Iran, Syria, Palestine and Saudi Arabia, and also from Russia and South Korea. The acceptance rate of the international students in various masters and doctoral degree programs amounts to about 8% of whom 11 students have joined the Institute for the academic year starting 2019.
Internationalization is a priority for our Institute, especially with the country making it a thrust area in the recently announced budget. Each international applicant goes through an extremely rigorous evaluation process and I am very pleased with the increasing number of excellent foreign students coming into IIT Kharagpur in recent years – Prof. Baidurya Bhattacharya, Dean, International Relations.
Top Choice for Academic Degree Programs
The MTech programs admitting foreign students this semester include Aerospace Engineering, Biotechnology, Chemical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering. The doctoral program in the School of Medical Science and Technology and the MBA program in the Vinod Gupta School of Management, each got one international admission in this semester.
The presence of international students in our Institute brings a fresh perspective to our classrooms and labs and enriches our campus life. This global perspective is only going to benefit India in the long-run, making our research output more relevant for a larger set of the public. In several countries, international students have to pay twice or higher the amount of domestic tuition fees for degree programs. At IIT Kharagpur however, the international fees for most graduate degree programs are nominal. In addition to ICCR and SII grants from Govt. of India, we have started offering our own scholarship programs – Prof. Baidurya Bhattacharya.
Financial Aid Programs
Earlier this year the Institute launched the Asoke Dey Sarkar International Program for providing funds to students from SAARC countries. The Institute’s flagship funding program for internationalization, Shri Gopal Rajgarhia International Program, entered its fourth year in 2019 and has made funding international masters and doctoral students its top priority. [Click here for more information on funding]
Non-Degree Programs
For non-degree programs in 2019 until now the Institute has received 50 applications from USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Norway, Spain, Japan, Rwanda, Iran. 13 students were accepted through various funding programs.
While we have seen international students enroll for studies at IIT Kharagpur in the past, the new policy of internationalization of the GoI, will boost our efforts and enable us to reach out to a larger number of international aspirants. It may be anticipated that the number of international students on campus will only increase in the coming years – Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Associate Dean, International Relations.
Last month the Institute also held a joint conclave with other IITs to increase international outreach and facilitate international students in admission, funding and stay.
Visit www.international.iitkgp.ac.in for learning more about the international program opportunities at IIT Kharagpur.
“It is indeed an opportune time to expand the scope of the value proposition of the academic excellence at IIT Kharagpur by developing the next phase education process. This is to be based not only on scientific and technical training but the teachings of ancient philosophies, reasoning, intuitive thinking, systems engineering and the past successes and failures of humanity,” remarked Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Director, IIT Kharagpur. He is optimistic that this initiative will place students of IIT Kharagpur on the fast track to be creative problem solvers and inspiring leaders, both in their professional careers and in their communities.
“Under this academy, programmes would be developed to nurture leadership qualities in individuals, organizations and ignite the young minds for a larger goal in life, enable in leaders of various walks and segments of life to share their perspectives and help instil each individual with the power to prosper their leadership potential, making it a vibrant self-sufficient academy with a global reputation,” added Prof. Chakrabarti.
The initiative has been facilitated by Ron Gupta, President, IIT Kharagpur Foundation USA who along with Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay, Dean, Alumni Affairs and Avinash Gupta Chair Professor at the Dept. of Architecture & Regional Planning, IIT Kharagpur, led the talks with Partha S Ghosh during a visit by IIT KGP delegates to USA in September this year which were finalized on the 125th Anniversary of the Chicago speech of Swami Vivekananda. The MoU has been signed on the august occasion of Bapu-ji’s 150th birth anniversary on October 2, 2018.