Take the IIT exam in Dubai

India's most reputed engineering and technology institute Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) conducts Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) every year to select 5,000 students out of 25,000 aspirants who take the exam. Every year around 200 students take these exams from the Gulf region as well.

The IIT exam can now be taken in Dubai beginning next year. It will be held in Dubai on April 13 next year.

Setting up a centre in Dubai is in line with the seven IITs asking the Indian Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry to encourage the intake of foreign students for a good mix of "unlike minds with different backgrounds" to enhance the academic environment on campuses.

Foreign students

According to data from IIT-Mumbai, the nodal IIT coordinating JEE 2007, there were 120 foreign students who took the JEE last year, of which only six qualified. Over and above their capacity for BTech courses, the IITs can
admit 10 per cent as foreign students.

In fact, last year, the IITs had evinced interest in taking JEE outside the country. The joint admission board for JEE 2008 which met in Roorkee, has said that like the 2007 exam, the next JEE will comprise two papers each of three hours duration.

The exam contents

The JEE directors said out that JEE 2008 will be a single stage objective-type exam that wiill test comprehension, reasoning and analytical ability of candidates.

Each paper will have a mixed bag of questions from physics, chemistry and maths. This year, the exam was conducted in 598 centres across India. Last year, for the first time, there was a drop in the number of JEE exam-takers.

This is indeed great news because any engineering aspirant can take the IIT-JEE, All Indian Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and Kerala State entrance exam from Dubai itself.

— The writer is the director of Meccademia, a Dubai Knowledge Village-based Indian education organisation

The advantages:

• Gulf-based aspirants can now get last minute guidance and mentoring before appearing for the exams;
• Students don't have to travel alone; parents can be with the student throughout the exam phase;
• Students have the convenience of taking the exam where they have been residing and preparing for the exam for the past two years;
• Parents with limited number of holidays will have to take the student to India only during the admission stage.