Study Abroad News & Alerts

To foster education and economic interests between the two countries, New Zealand has signed two agreements on an education cooperation basis with IIM Ahmedabad and GIFT city. The purpose of this collaboration is to focus on research opportunities, joint partnerships and different areas of management courses. The partnership is aimed towards strengthening the relations between India and New Zealand in terms of education and research. India's aiming to transform its education scenario in the coming 10 years. Having collaborations with different countries is going to match up with the vision of NEP 2020 that aims towards making the standard of education in India par with the international standards. It will also foster better engagement between universities of India and New Zealand.

India is all set to welcome a committee of 31 delegates from 17 prestigious universities of the US. This initiative is the result of the India-US collaboration to foster education, research, and mobility among the two countries. The delegation is all set to visit different institutions in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. This visit is necessary because of the recent incidents happening against Indian students in foreign universities. The crime against Indian students in international University is on the rise. To discuss the security and well-being of Indian students, a proper seminar is going to be organised. In 2023, the President of the US and the Prime Minister of India had a fruitful meeting related to relations between India and the US. Both the countries understand each other's role in economic development and betterment of the education system. India is one of the largest contributors of international to the US currently. The number of international students in the US is going to increase in the coming years.

The registration window for the JEE Main session two exam will be closing very soon. The session two application window will be closing on 2nd March,2024.  The examination will be organised in April, 2024. All the students interested in appearing for the exam must register themselves as soon as possible. Any candidate who has previously appeared for the session 1 JEE Mains exam as well has to simply register with their previous ID only. Any candidate who has appeared once for the session one and registers themselves with the new ID and password will be recognised as an unfair registration. So students must be extremely careful while registering themselves for the exam. The application process will not be completed if the student doesn't submit their registration fees. so it is compulsory for all candidates to conclude the registration process by submitting the application fee.

CBSE has proposed a new policy related to class 10th and 12th boards from the upcoming years. An open book policy for the conduction of exams is being considered by CBSE to alleviate stress among students related to board exams. CBSE will not be introducing this policy directly in all schools. Initially a pilot programme will be introduced in some selected schools. Students will give an open book exam for subjects like English, mathematics and science initially to evaluate the efficacy of this policy. Right now there is no confirmation related to this policy, but the chances are high that it might be implemented from 2024 onwards. An open book examination policy will totally change the narrative of board exams. The board will have to look into the policy intricately to understand its implications. This policy will not only be applicable for class 10th and 12th but also for class 9th and 11th.

The Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi is all set to inaugurate three IIMs and IITs in 2024. The latest institute that is going to be inaugurated by the prime minister is IIT Jammu campus. This campus is the latest addition to the top technical institutes of the country. It comes with an impressive infrastructure boosting 104 faculty offices, 27 lecture halls and various laboratories. all the projects that are going to be inaugurated by the PM in 2024 or worth Rs.32000 crores. 20 new buildings of Kendriya Vidyalaya are also going to be inaugurated by the PM along with 13 new buildings of Navodya Vidyalya. Other than Jammu, new IITs are going to be established in Bhilai and Tirupati. In 2024, the government is going to open many such institutes in the country for the purpose of a better higher education system in the country.

IIT Madras has released guidelines for its sports excellence program that will be started from 2024. Through this initiative, IIT Madras will be giving a selected number of seats to students in BTech programme. To be eligible for admission. Through this process, the candidate must possess an extraordinary achievement in sports on a national or international level. Currently the institute has decided to offer to sit under this programme. One out of the two seats have been reserved for female candidates and the other is gender neutral. IIT Madras has released the list of the sports that will be considered for this initiative while assessing the applications of various candidates. The list includes sports like, swimming, table tennis, hockey, squash, badminton, basketball, cricket, athletics, aquatic, volleyball and weightlifting et cetera. For the proper guidelines, candidates may refer to the official website of IIT Madras.

Instead of applying for full-time courses, international students can always go for short-term courses in international universities. These courses give the needed acceleration to students in their career and also don't take a long amount of time to be completed. The purpose of these courses is to complete a lot of syllabus in limited time and give students opportunities in their respective careers. Here are the top short-term study programs that students can opt for in 2024.

• Robotics- ETH Zurich 

This is a two week short-term program offered by ETH Zürich to international students. This transformative program provides hands-on learning experience in the field of robotics to students in limited time.

• Tech Leadership- UC Berkeley 

This is one of the most prestigious programs offered by UC Berkeley, which is three weeks long in tenure. Does the perfect synthesis of technology and entrepreneurship. Both of these fields are highly in demand and the program provides training of these two disciplines to students within a limited time.

• Engineering Management At MIT

MIT is one of the most prestigious universities in the world. This is a highly sought after and rigourous three weeks program in which students learn various facets of engineering management.

• Oxford Computer Science Program 

This is a two week program offered by the University of Oxford. Students learn how to perform different data structures, engage in international projects, and prepare for their career in a dynamic environment.

On 18th February, 2024, the University of Essex celebrated its graduation ceremony for Indian students in New Delhi. Around 80 students who graduated from the University this year were felicitated with their degrees. Also four prior alumnis were awarded with a VC award. The special programme was organised for all the Indian students from the university and celebrated their distinct culture and participation in enhancing the diversity at the campus. The specially organised program was meant to give the students an opportunity to celebrate this momentous occasion in their life closer to their homes. Every year many parents and family members are not able to attend the graduation ceremony of their loved ones because of the distance. The university plans on organising many such programmes in the coming years for students from different parts of the world.

Because of the constant rejection of international students for student visas, many Australian universities are asking students to withdraw their applications. Currently one out of every five international students is getting rejected by the immigration department of Australia. The rejection rate for students from South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, and Nepal are all-time high. This is because of Australia's new policy of only attracting genuine students. Many students are also complaining over the lack of transparency levels in the visa rejection. Students are not given proper explanation as to why their applications are getting rejected. The universities in Australia are also expecting a major loss in their revenue as compare to the previous year because of the hike in projection rates. As the immigration levels have been minimised, universities will not be able to accept as many international students as they were able to the previous year.

NTA is planning to make the CUET more seamless for 2024 for both the students and the system. In 2023, many students had to face numerous problems related to the exam. Multiple students could not be allotted examination centres for the longest time. Some students were not able to give the exam because of improper conditions of the examination centre. Both UGC and NTA are planning to introduce a lot of new policies to make sure that students don't face the similar problem as they did the previous year. One of the major changes that has been made is the introduction of a hybrid mode of conducting the examination. From 2024 onwards, not all the exams will be conducted in CBT mode. The subjects that will receive the highest number of registrations will be conducted in Pen and paper mode. also students will get to only choose from six different papers as opposed to 10 different papers the previous year. UGC is yet to disclose many such new reforms related to the CUET 2024.

NTA has added more foreign centers for NEET UG 2024. This year, the NEET UG exam will be conducted in more centers as compared to the previous years. Candidates who have already submitted their application for NEET UG 2024 will get the opportunity to make changes in their center details. Centers like Kuwait city, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bangkok and Singapore etc have been added. Candidates who have already selected an Indian Centre for the exam will get the opportunity to make the corrections and select whatever foreign center that they want to. But these candidates will have to pay a differential amount as per the variation in the center. Any candidate who has not yet registered for the exam will get the option of selecting all the recently added centers in the application form itself. Aunty has also revised the registration fee for the NEET UG from 2024 onwards. 

CBSE has released a new protocol related to any issue that students might face related to board exams. 

These protocols will deal with any out of the syllabus question that has come in the question paper. If a student feels a particular question is incorrect, then they must inform the invigilator as soon as possible. It will be the duty of the invigilator to inform the examination center supervisor. The supervisor will mail board authorities the problem faced by students related to the question paper. Taking all this feedback into consideration, CBSE will give certain guidelines to examination checkers that will be followed during the process of marking students. It will be compulsory for all the invigilators and supervisors to submit the problems faced by students on the day of the exam itself with a proper review report. In 2024, more than 39,00,00 students will be giving their ward exams in India and across different countries.

The government of New Zealand has worked on its immigration system and now the waiting time for a student visa has decreased significantly. The immigration system of New Zealand has implemented a lot of new efficient systems and increased the staff which has led to a significant decrease in the student Visa waiting time. As compared to 2022, there was a 20% increase in the number of student visa applications received by New Zealand in 2023. In 80% of the cases, students receive their student visa only after six weeks of application. International students have been showing increasing interest in New Zealand. After top study abroad destinations like Australia, the UK and Canada announced new policies related to international students. The New Zealand government allows international students to work 20 hours a week as part time employees and also bring family members on the basis of dependent visas.

The examination for different subjects of CUET UG 2024 is expected to be conducted in single shifts. All the different subjects will be only conducted once as it will help in eliminating the process of normalization through exams of the same subject conducted in different shifts. NTA and UGC are yet to have a joint meeting related to the decision of examination dates and time. After the finalization of the same, the announcement of the dates, times and possible centers will be released for students.

The registration process for the exam will most likely begin by the end of February. This year, CUET will be conducted in hybrid mode. Some examinations will be conducted in pen and paper mode whereas the others will be conducted in CBT mode. For areas like Jammu and Kashmir, north-eastern states and subjects with high number of registrations, CUET will be conducted in pen and paper mode. This will help avoid the pressure of arranging for computer based examination centers and dividing the examination of a single subject into various slots. 

Post-pandemic, Indian students have shown an increasing interest in studying in the top study abroad destinations of the world. The top education providers of the world such as the US, the UK, and other European countries have also worked really hard to provide standard education to the students in return for high tuition fees. Many new visa consulates have been opened in India to make the process of student visa a lot more seamless. 

Latest report shows that more than half of the students who want to study abroad from India are female students. These are not just from tievillagesr 1 cities of India but from small towns and even . The participation of women has increased in STEM over the years. Now more female students from the country are interested in studying abroad. There has been a jump of 25% in 2023 in the number of female applications registered for studying abroad as compared to 2022. The number of study loans applied by female students has increased by similar numbers as well.

The British council has recently informed all Indian aspirants who want to migrate to the UK for a better future to apply for the first open visa ballot. This is the Young Professional Scheme that has just been started by the UK. The ballot system has already started from 20th February, 2024. Interesting candidates can register themselves till 22nd February, 2024. The registration for the scheme is absolutely free for all Indian citizens. This scheme is specifically for young immigrants who have graduated from Indian universities and want to study or work in the UK. This scheme is going to give all the young graduates up to 2 years to live in the UK and find job opportunities. The UK has reserved 3000 slots for Indian nationals and the rest of the slots for other countries will open in July, 2024.

The Union Education Minister of India, Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan has recently announced during a conference that from 2025 onwards, all the students studying in CBSEF related schools will get two opportunities in a year to appear for board exams. This is another policy that has been introduced under NEP 2020. By introducing this policy, the government is looking forward to relieving students from any kind of academic stress. The two chances given by the government will give all these students appearing for the board exams to improve their performance as compared to the previous attempt. Also the government is looking forward to introducing the system of 10 bagless days in every academic year. These 10 days will specifically be dedicated to different creative and vocational activities such as dance, arts and other cultural activities.

NTA will be officially releasing the results for JEE Mains paper two on the official website of JEE Mains. The paper II was conducted for Bachelors in architecture and Bachelors in planning. The paper two for slot one of JEE Mains was conducted on 24th January, 2024. More than 55,400 appeared for the exam. Around 75% of the total registered candidates appeared for the paper 2. To check the official results, candidates can refer to the website of JEE Mains. The link for the results will be available on the homepage of the website. Candidates will have to submit their registration number along with date of birth to download the results.

From 15th February, 2024 onwards the government of Canada has decided to extend the post graduate work visa for international students. Now international students pursuing their post graduation from Canada will be allowed to stay in the country for three years. As per the government, students pursuing a postgraduate degree from the country are a better fit into the labour market of the country. By giving the students a time of three years, the government is allowing them to find suitable jobs and contribute to the Canadian economy. Only the post-graduate programmes that are two years long are eligible for this new change. The change has already been implemented from 15th February and all those students applying for a post graduate study visa from now onwards are eligible for the new visa.

Since the introduction of new visa rules for international students in Australia, the rejection rate is on the rise. As many as one out of every five international students' visas are getting rejected. There has been a 20% decrease in the student visa allotment to international students by Australia. It is being expected that Australia will allot only 250,000 student visas to international students in 2024. This is massively low as compared to the previous year. Indian students are the largest diaspora of international students being affected because of this change in the visa policy of Australia.

 Other countries like Nepal and Pakistan have also been severely affected because of this change. In the beginning of 2024, Australia adopted a new strategy to regulate international students in the country. The country is trying to only attract genuine students who want to pursue their education in Australia. Lately a lot of students have been enrolling into short time, diploma courses and coming to the country only for working part time. Australia is looking forward to eliminating all such candidates and only focusing on high-quality education.