IITs eye Asean footprint to boost global ranking

MUMBAI: Eighteen IITs are coming together to take "Brand IIT" to foreign shores.
The premier institutes plan to participate in education fairs at Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries to attract international students to their campuses. The presence of few international students on their campuses has been a major hindrance in stepping up their game in global rankings.
Since admission to their flagship B-Tech course will be only through JEE-a difficult test to crack even for Indian students-the focus of this initiative will be to get foreign nationals to pursue post-graduate, PhD and other non-degree programmes here. The decision was taken at an All-IIT International Relations Conclave organised at IIT-Bombay on December 2.
Deans from international relations' offices from all the 18 IITs attended the meet.
A representative from one of the IITs said, "We realized that it was very important to brand our institutions globally to attract international students. Global rankings are based on perceptions and IITs need to go all out to build that image. Individually, it would have been difficult for the IITs to raise funds and other resources for such branding activities. The IITs, therefore, decided to come together for some joint initiatives." She added, "Students do visit IITs for short-term courses but we need to enrol them for longer period through increased collaborations."