Study Abroad News & Alerts

University of Dundee in Scotland is inviting Indian students to apply for its global excellent scholarship. All the interested students can apply for the scholarship till 31st August, 2024. Selected students will be given £5000 every year of the degree. This means that students who choose a three-year degree will get £15,000 while students choosing a four year degree will get £20,000 as a part of the scholarship. It is compulsory for students to be Indian citizens to be able to apply for the scholarship. The student must also have received a full-time non-conditional offer from the university for the September intake of 2024 to get the scholarship.

Delhi University's DU Cluster Innovation Centre is offering BTech programs without considering JEE Mains score. Students can pursue BTech in mathematical innovation and information technology at the Delhi University through CUET UG. It is mandatory for students to have pursued their class 11th and 12th in PCM to be eligible for the programmes. There are a total 50 seats for both these programmes and annual tuition fee for the same is Rs.5000. Different numbers of seats have been reserved for different categories. These new courses were also offered to students the previous year. It is an attempt of the Delhi University to start offering technical courses and further increase the disciplines.

UGC has officially released the list of universities that are eligible for the open distance learning programmes. Students can check this list to get an idea and only enrol in these universities that have been authorised by the UGC. More than 80 universities have been granted the permission to offer different types of distance learning programmes under the HEI act. For the academic session of February 2024, students can apply for the program only till 31st March, 2024. UGC has also released a set of guidelines that students can refer to and precautions that they must take while taking admission in open universities. Everything related to the time, duration of each program and credits have been specified in these guidelines.

The number of registrations for NEET UG 2024 has surpassed all the previous records. More than 24,00,00 students have registered themselves for the exam. The exam is going to be organised on 5th May, 2024. The exam is going to be across different centres in India and 14 different centres in the world. Looking at the registrations for the exam this year, NEET has become the biggest entrance test in the country. There has been a threefold increase in the number of registrations for the exam since 2016 where there were only 800000 registrations. Looking at the growing demand of healthcare professionals and students who want to get into the field of medicine, the number of medical colleges in India have also increased. Currently there are 706 medical colleges in India that offer more than 56,385 medical seats to students.

UGC has cautioned students to choose their universities and courses carefully. students must first check all the guidelines released by UGC and the website of the subjective University before proceeding forward. As a lot of new changes have been introduced in the past two years regarding the admission in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, many students are still confused about their admission process. It is important to note that courses like yoga, tourism in hotel management cannot be learnt through an online mode. Other courses that are banned from being taught online include law, architecture, dental courses, nursing courses, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and many more. Students can also not pursue PhD and MPhil courses through a distant mode.

Recently, the chairman of UGC, M Jagadesh Kumar has released a list of universities and institutes that have registered for CUET UG exam. More than 200 institutes from India including Central, universities, private institutions, state universities and many more have registered for the exam. These institutes will be giving admission to students solely on the basis of CUET UG scores. More than 46 central universities have already registered themselves. The list also includes 98 private universities and 20 deemed to be universities. The chairman has also said that this year the level of the examination will be moderate so that students from different parts of the country find it easy to attempt. Also a lot of logistic errors have been rectified and the process of the examination conduction will be as seamless as possible.

Currently the board exams for class 10th and 12th are going on in the country. Whilst the 2024 board exams, CBSE has decided to release the syllabus for the board exams for 2025. The syllabus for the board exams for both classes 10th and 12th has remained unchanged. Class 12 students will have to choose at least five subjects for appearing in board exams. Looking at the CBSE curriculum for board exam syllabus for class 10th and 12th, students can easily understand the approach that CBSE is trying to follow. Few languages that have been included in the curriculum include Punjabi, Arabic, Assamese, Bodo, Gujarati, Gurung, Mizo and many more. For internal assessments of class 9th and 10th, the subjects that had been decided include physical education, work, experience and art.

IIM Kashipur is inviting candidates from around the world to apply for its executive MBA program for the batch of 2024 to 2026. Candidates who have great entrepreneurial skills and want to build a future in the field of management can apply for the same. This program is specifically designed for working professionals who want to pursue their degree while working full time. The course has been designed in a way that all the candidates will be a part of the programme and will be able to easily manage their work and degree. Students can submit their CAT or GMAT score to get admission. The course will consist of eight terms and students will get to choose different types of electives during this program. Students also have the option to pursue the course only for one year and exit with a degree of Executive Post Graduate Certificate In Management. 

Current changes in immigration policies for the top study abroad destinations like the UK, Canada, and Australia has led to a massive decline in the interest of Indian students to study abroad. Canada has put a historic cap on international students and will only be accepting 2,90,000 international students in 2024. This will impact the number of student visas issued to Indian students massively. Countries like the UK and Australia have also released stringent immigration policies that have dramatically increased the visa rejection rate for Indian students. In this case, it is highly likely that countries like France, Germany, and New Zealand will become the top priority of Indian students in the coming years. One of the top reasons why Indian students are interested in studying in these countries is the fact that they have affordable tuition fees. The other reasons include affordable accommodation and availability of numerous part-time jobs.

CBSE has decided to take away the status of affiliation from over 20 schools because of malpractices and lack of regulations during board exams and general conduction of the school. Recently the officials of CBSE conducted a surprise inspection in various schools around the country. Upon this inspection, it was found that many schools who have been affiliated by CBSE for not following the general norms of conducting a school. Many schools were found to give attendance to dummy students, the records were maintained very improperly and classes were also not conducted in the right way. Following a serious series of inspections, CBSE decided to downgrade the schools and even 20 schools were disaffiliated.

IIT Madras is inviting candidates to apply for its BS in data sciences and applications & electronic system program. Interested students can directly apply on the official website of IIT Madras. Currently data science and electronic systems has created one of the largest job markets in India. The program is going to be four years long and students will learn an integrated approach towards the discipline. There are just 30 seats for the programme and already more than 90,000 students have applied for the same. The course is all set to begin on 31st July, 2024. Students will be selected through their marks in the IISER aptitude test. Students can also apply for scholarships that will cover up to 75% of the total tuition fees.

Australia is all set to introduce a series of rules that will be imposed on the processing of student visas from 23rd March, 2024 onwards. Now applicants will have to show a savings of $25,505 in their account if they want to study in Australia. The genuine student requirement has been increased as the Australian authorities have found that many students come to the country for working part time rather than studying. This is impacting the total employment status and the quality of education in Australia. Now students pursuing a full time degree, rather than diplomas will be given more preference. As GTE is a very important part of the Visa granting process, any student who is not able to show the required amount in their account will not be given a student visa by the Australian authorities. More information related to these rules will be released in a few days.

The National Medical Council has decided to postpone the NEET PG exam to June 23, 2024. This decision has been taken by the PGMEB as well as the NMC. Previously the exam was scheduled on July 7, 2024. Instead of announcing results, on August 15, the results will be announced on 15th July. The counselling will begin on 5th August and will go on till October. The new academic session will be started on 6th September, 2024. This is not the first time that the exam has been rescheduled. Initially the exam had to be conducted on 7th March, 2024. However, it was postponed to July. Now the exam has been postponed again. A lot of students are not taking this latest decision positively. The perpetual changing of exam dates impacts the schedule of students.

The Banaras Hindu University is all set to introduce the NEP 2020 and introduce a four year long undergraduate degree. This will be done for both honours and research degrees. Not everyone will get the opportunity to choose a four-year undergraduate programme. Only students with the CGPA of more than 7.5 will be allowed to get into this program. Students pursuing an undergraduate honours degree will directly become eligible for a PhD without having to pursue a masters degree. Students will also get to choose their minors in different fields. One of the courses that will remain unchanged from this latest development is the BA LLB program.

NCERT is all set to release a series of changes in the syllabus for classes 3rd to 6th for all CBSE schools in the country. The change in syllabus will require schools to make changes in the timetables as well. NCERT will be collaborating with the NEP department to launch new books with more relevant syllabus. know the learning for classes, 3rd to 6th will be more activity and fun based rather than just focusing on the theoretical aspects. Students will be given a holistic environment in which they will be provided a safe space to learn and grow. It will focus on all aspects like skill education, problem-solving, fresh insights and many more. New pedagogical perspectives like vocational training will also be introduced.

Pondicherry University’s School of Law has collaborated with the Frankfurt University to promote better research activities among the two institutions. Germany is a rising study abroad destination for students in India. Also it is one of the best education providers in the field of STEM. Under this collaboration, various faculties and departments from the field of social work and public policy will come together to foster better opportunities for students. By becoming a part of such initiatives, Pondicherry University wants to internationalise the education scenario in India. This whole news of the collaboration has been announced by the dean and the vice chancellor of the Pondicherry University.

There has been a huge growth in the demand for luxury homes in India recently. Keeping that in mind, IIM Ahmedabad will soon start offering courses in the field of real estate. The institute has already launched four electives in the field of real estate that will be offered to students. IIM Bangalore has also started offering electives in the field of real estate. These top institutes plan on giving top quality, real estate agents to the country through their MBA program. In countries like the UK and the US, there are already well designated real estate programmes being offered to students. Now, considering the growing real estate industry in India, the top institutes of the country have decided to join the bandwagon. Currently real estate will be offered as an elective but in the coming years, the institutes may also launch short-term or long-term courses in the similar field.

The National Testing Agency is going to organise CUET UG from 15th May to 31st May. The proper date sheet for the examination will be decided after 26th March, 2024. As the dates of the examination will be colliding with the Lok Sabha elections of India, most students were expecting the examination to be postponed. However, now students can get an exact idea of the timeline of the examination. NTA will be designing the date sheet on the basis of the number of students who have registered for the exam and thier geographical distribution. The last date for CUETUG registration is 26th March, 2024. Although NTA has already released its schedule for the exam, there was no certainty as the examination dates were very close to the election dates. Students will get clarity about the examination and the dates very soon.

The Indira Gandhi National Open University has started the registration process for the June 2024 term end  examination. There is a station process for the examination started on March 1, and will go on till 31st March, 2024. However, the university will take applications even after March with the late examination fee. The examination will begin in the month of June and conclude by 8th July. students will have to pay Rs.200 for each theory exam. The practical fee will be Rs.300 for a particular course. The project fee will be Rs.300 for a four credit course and Rs 500 for a course that is more than four credits. Students can pay the fee by visiting the official portal of IGNOU. It is compulsory to pay the fee at the time of registration and it has to be paid in only online mode.

IISc Bangalore is offering a short-term course for interested students. The first batch of the course will begin on 5th July and will continue till 9th July. Students can apply for the program till 25th June, 2024. The name of the course is Monte Carlo Simulations and Machine Learning Based Methods in Computational Structural Reliability. This is not an online course and the selected students will have to attend the course in person. The course is offered by the Department of Civil Engineering of the institute. After checking its performance and taking reviews from students, the institute will decide if the cost will be continued or not. For the eligibility criteria, candidates can check the official website of the institute and register themselves.