Study Abroad News & Alerts

NEET UG 2024 which was conducted on 5th May, 2024 was organised at 4750 centres across India. More than 24,00,00 candidates registered for the exam this year. The NEET UG has three sections consisting of physics, chemistry, and biology. Each subject is further divided into two sections and each section has 35 and 15 questions each. For every correct answer, the candidate gets four marks and for every incorrect Answer the candidate gets -1 marks. Now students are desperately awaiting the release of NEET UG 2024 answer key. 

Many students have claimed that the question paper was leaked and students were allowed to go from the examination centre before the conclusion of the exam. This is against the rules specified by NTA. Now NTA has clarified that this particular incident only happened in Rajasthan because students forcibly took away the question paper. A legal action is being taken towards the students and all the culprits will be punished.

IIT, Indore is inviting interested candidates to apply for the summer internship program. It is compulsory for all the students who have at least 60% in their class 12. Also, the student must be pursuing a bachelor's degree from an accredited Institute in India. Students can directly apply on the official website of IIT Indore. The period of internship is going to vary from one month to 2 months depending upon the mentor that the student gets. Students can register for the same till 10th May, 2024. As per the prospectus, students can select the faculty member of their choice as their mentors. The decision should be made on the basis of alignment of interests. IIT Indore currently has 11 departments and around 70 faculty members. This gives students a great deal of variety. It is compulsory for the student to have a CGPA that is equivalent to first division to be eligible for the internship.

IIT, Indore is inviting interested candidates to apply for the summer internship program. It is compulsory for all the students who have at least 60% in their class 12. Also, the student must be pursuing a bachelor's degree from an accredited Institute in India. Students can directly apply on the official website of IIT Indore. The period of internship is going to vary from one month to 2 months depending upon the mentor that the student gets. Students can register for the same till 10th May, 2024. As per the prospectus, students can select the faculty member of their choice as their mentors. The decision should be made on the basis of alignment of interests. IIT Indore currently has 11 departments and around 70 faculty members. This gives students a great deal of variety. It is compulsory for the student to have a CGPA that is equivalent to first division to be eligible for the internship.

The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, has officially started its 18th batch for executive MBA programme. This program is specifically meant for executives who have more than five years of professional experience. This year around 80 industry professionals have joined this one year MBA program from the prestigious institute. Students from various backgrounds such as Aerospace, mining, healthcare, government, defence and financial services have joined this program. The program is specifically meant for working professionals who want to hone their skills and yet not leave their professional career. 

The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, has officially started its 18th batch for executive MBA programme. This program is specifically meant for executives who have more than five years of professional experience. This year around 80 industry professionals have joined this one year MBA program from the prestigious institute. Students from various backgrounds such as Aerospace, mining, healthcare, government, defence and financial services have joined this program. The program is specifically meant for working professionals who want to hone their skills and yet not leave their professional career. 

The US consulate in Hyderabad has announced the release of the schedule for first bachelors appointments. The interviews will be conducted late in May. The appointment schedule for months of June, July and August will also be released very soon. Releasing the schedule will help students prepare for the Visa interview in advance. Now that September intake is just around the corner, a lot of students are ready to get their student visas as they have already got letters of acceptance from their colleges. This year, the immigration department of the US has taken special measures to ensure that students do not have to wait for a very long amount of time for visa interviews.

Among the various international student curbs, the US has come out to be the most preferred study abroad destination for Indian students. Through all these years, the USA has always been one of the top priorities of Indian students when it came to studying abroad. From 2022 to 2023, the number of Indian students going to the US for studying increased by 35%. The United States of America has close to 200 universities featuring in the top 1000 universities list of the world. Another reason why Indian students are choosing the US for higher education is the ability to apply for OPT. OPT stands for optional placement training under which students can get their visa extended from 1 year to 3 years. This will help them in gaining practical experience in their respective field.

IIM Nagpur has announced that it will be giving a scholarship covering hundred percent tuition fees for the two-year MBA degree that costs INR 19 lakhs. This scholarship will be given to meritorious students who preferably have a total annual family income less than INR 5 lakhs. 10 out of the 20 scholarships will be given to students with a very high CAT percentile. The rest of the scholarships will be given to students who come from not a very strong financial background but have great potential. This year a special scholarship has also been announced for a student who has been able to score 99.78 percentile or more in their CAT exam. For more information, candidates can visit the official website of IIM Nagpur.

In a recent interview, officials from the immigration department of Australia have said that the minimum savings that a student needs to show in their account to get a student visa for Australia has now been increased. Now students have to show AU$29,710 in their account and savings to get a student visa. This is the second time in the past seven months that the minimum savings required by international students have been increased. Previously, the amount was AU$24,505. The government had also modified the English level requirements for international students. Among all these modifications, the immigration department has also warned all international students to stay away from fraudulent recruitment agencies that give fake documents to students for getting a student visa. This is totally illegal, and it could lead to the student getting deported.

CBSE has asked all the affiliated schools to focus on teaching students in their mother tongue from an early age. This new notice issued by CBSE on 7th May, 2024 is in alignment with NEP 2020. The notice said that recognition of linguistic identity for each and every child is very important. Children should be taught the correct pronunciation of each and every alphabet in the script of the language. Students should be motivated to learn the language early on so that they're able to master their mother tongue at an early age. The most frequent setback that a lot of schools will be facing is the availability of a skilled teacher who will be able to teach students the regional language in a correct way. 

NEET UG was organised in India and across different countries on 5th May 2024. More than 4750 centres were allocated for the conduction of the examination in and outside of the country. However, sudden rumours started to stem after some students from an examination centre in Rajasthan were seen leaving the hall before the total time was over. This led to a lot of speculation, one of which being that the paper had already been leaked before it had started. It is the rule for all candidates that once an examination has been started, nobody is allowed to leave the centre before the total time gets over. Soon after the examination got over, pictures of rough question papers started getting circulated. This led to a stronger belief among students that the question paper had been leaked before the examination began. However, NTA has maintained the same stance and has asked students to remain calm as no paper has been leaked. 

Class 10 students have the opportunity to choose between basic maths and standard maths while giving their board exams. Previously students choosing basic maths were not allowed to pursue or choose mathematics as a discipline in the class 11th and 12th. However, CBSE has now made a recent modification under which students opting for even basic mathematics in class 10th will be allowed to go for mathematics in class 11th and 12th. However, mathematics as a discipline should only be given to students who have the aptitude and the discipline to score well in the same. It is the duty of the school to look after this. Also, CBSE has advised all the class 11th students to choose their subjects carefully as CBSE will not be entertaining frequent changes in the list of candidates again and again.

Flinders University has recently announced a partnership with the Dylan Alcott Foundation to offer a scholarship to specially abled international students who would like to study at the university. Under the scholarship, a fund of $30,000 will be allocated. $10,000 will be given to the tuition fees of the student annually. Moreover, the university will separately provide $5000 every year to look after the accommodation and other expenses of the students. The scholarship is specifically meant for specially abled students who are under the age of 26 and registered with the university for the upcoming intake. The purpose of the scholarship is to provide financial support to specially abled students to build networks for a secure future to students who are often sidelined in the society.

Students are facing major visa delays from Australia due to the recent visa crackdown policy introduced by Australia to tackle the problem of over immigration. The number of students going to Australia or students getting an Australian student visa has come down to half in this quarter as compared to the previous quarter. Many people are afraid that this might also impact the political ties between the two countries. However, the major concern right now is the waiting period that students have to face. Even after waiting for such a long time, there is no guarantee that the student is going to get a visa. They are being rejected for no specified reasons. Australia had released stringent policies since the beginning of 2023. Since then, slowly the number of student visas being offered to Indian students started declining. Many universities in Australia have imposed blanket bans on Indian students. South Asian countries like Nepal, Pakistan and China also have experienced the highest rejection rates.

The Indian embassy in China for the very first time has held a meeting with international students from India who have been severely affected because of the post-pandemic visa bans. Around 80 students from 13 Chinese universities were a part of this meeting. Before the pandemic, approximately 23,000 students from India were studying in China in the field of medicine. Indian students were the second largest cohort of international students after Pakistani students in China. During the pandemic, all Indian students had to leave the country and couldn't return even after things got better because of the visa ban by the Chinese government. Students started returning back to China to continue their studies by the end of 2022. The meeting highlighted the problems faced by Indian students in China and how it could be tackled.

The University of Guelph, which is a Canadian university, is offering a scholarship worth C$2000 to all international students who will be taking admission in the university. In addition, the university is also providi

ng a commitment to offer accommodation to all students in bachelors as well as masters degree. PhD students will have a guaranteed place of accommodation in their first year of degree. The university has been supporting international students from more than 140 countries for several years now. Students can study different types of courses, such as economics, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, bachelors of science, biomedical, engineering, and many more. For more information, students can visit the official website of the university to check more details regarding admissions and scholarships.

Canada will be welcoming approximately 35,700 new immigrants under the new supervisor scheme. All the applicants who were left in the 2020 batch of supervisor will now have the opportunity to register for the same. Under the supervision scheme, parents and grandparents are given the permission to migrate to Canada. If one of the family members is already in the country and can sponsor them. Candidates getting a supervisor will be able to stay in the country for five years and even extend their stay once they start living in the country. The super visa allows a person to visit multiple times in a duration of 10 years. It is compulsory for the host who is a grandchild or a child to be a permanent resident of Canada. It is different from a visitor's visa as it allows a person to stay continuously in the country for 5 years and visit multiple times in a duration of 10 years.

Canada will be welcoming approximately 35,700 new immigrants under the new supervisor scheme. All the applicants who were left in the 2020 batch of supervisor will now have the opportunity to register for the same. Under the supervision scheme, parents and grandparents are given the permission to migrate to Canada. If one of the family members is already in the country and can sponsor them. Candidates getting a supervisor will be able to stay in the country for five years and even extend their stay once they start living in the country. The super visa allows a person to visit multiple times in a duration of 10 years. It is compulsory for the host who is a grandchild or a child to be a permanent resident of Canada. It is different from a visitor's visa as it allows a person to stay continuously in the country for 5 years and visit multiple times in a duration of 10 years.

University of Sheffield is inviting candidates from around the world for its latest MSc in drug discovery science program. Along with this new program, candidates will also get the opportunity to avail different types of scholarships. This programme will be offered from the September intake of 2024. The curriculum of the programme will revolve around pharmacology, toxicology, optimisation of molecules, and many more. The program just doesn't consist of theoretical aspects but will also include 12 weeks of intense research training. Since it's a masters programme, it is compulsory for all candidates to have pursued at least a three-year long bachelor's degree. The annual fee for the program is £29,700. However, students who were selected for the postgraduate scholarship will get a discount of £5000 and the total tuition fee. 

A PhD degree is given to an individual after they religiously carry out research in a particular domain for 3 to 4 years and submit the thesis. The master's degree is a testament of a candidate specialisation and a PhD furthers this specialisation as it allows the candidate to think more creatively. Previously candidates had to give different types of entrance exams in India to get into various institutes that offer PhD degrees. But from now on, UGC has made it compulsory for all candidates to appear for the NET which is going to be the standard entrance exam for PhD programmes. Since the aim of this degree is to make a candidate conceptually and methodologically clear, the entrance exam will be a standard way of analysing the basic level of awareness of the candidate, and whether they are the right fit for a research degree or not.