Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) students seeking admission to Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are not required to take the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Main), according to a brochure released by IIT Guwahati, which is organising the JEE mains exam this year.
Students in the categories had to first take the preliminary entrance exam for the IITs in order to be eligible for the Advanced exam, which determined admissions. However, in the 2022 admission cycle, they were classified as foreign nationals. In accordance with the procedure for foreign national students, the new rule states that OCI and PIO students, including those studying in India, can directly register to take the JEE Advanced.
OCI and PIO candidates may take the JEE Main if they wish. However, their score will not be considered for the JEE Advanced shortlist.
“The foreign national candidates who have studied or are studying in India or abroad at 10+2 level or equivalent at the time of registering for JEE (Advanced) 2023 are not required to write JEE (Main) 2023 and may register for JEE (Advanced) 2023 directly subject to fulfilment of other eligibility criteria,” the IIT Guwahati brochure says. It clarifies, “candidates who are not citizens of India (by birth or naturalized) and/or are OCI/PIO card holders are treated as foreign nationals.”
Confirming the relaxation, Bishnupada Mandal, chairman for the JEE-Advanced 2023, told The Indian Express, “The OCI or PIO candidates were considered as foreign nationals even in last year's process. But they had to appear for the JEE-Main to get shortlisted for JEE-Advanced. But after being termed as foreign nationals, their fee-structure changed automatically. It was decided that the criteria for their entrance exam had to be in line for foreign nationals. They are not required to write JEE-Main. This change will be applicable from JEE-Advanced 2023.”
With this change, OCI or PIO candidates will be admitted to IITs through the 10% supernumerary seats reserved for foreign nationals rather than the general pool of seats reserved for Indian students. They will also be unable to make reservations.
“Seats allotted to such foreign national candidates are supernumerary with a cap of 10 percent of total number of seats in every course. These candidates are outside the ambit of reservation of seats under the GEN-EWS, OBC-NCL, SC, ST, and PwD categories. There are no separate supernumerary seats or subcategory for females in the foreign national supernumerary seats,” the information brochure states.
The IITs anticipate that the move will result in more foreign national seats in the IITs because OCI and PIO students will seek admission on their own merit and will no longer have to compete in the competitive Common Rank List (CRL) after the JEE-Advanced.
However, the number of foreign candidates taking the JEE Advanced has always been low. Only a small percentage of those who show up are eligible for a seat. Only a few of them get their preferred course or confirm their admission, keeping the number of foreign nationals, particularly in undergraduate courses, at a bare minimum at the IITs.
Over the last five years, the number of foreign nationals offered seats at IITs has not exceeded ten. After OCI/PIO candidates were added to the foreign nationals category, the total number increased to 66.
Mandal said, “A total of 296 candidates have registered for JEE-Advanced 2022. This included OCI/PIO who were shortlisted from JEE-Main. Due to this, the number of candidates was not quite high. It was reduced further as only 280 of them actually appeared for the JEE-Advanced 2022. Out of them, only 145 qualified. Only 66 of them joined IITs.”
“With OCI or PIO candidates not having to compete in the Common Rank List (CRL) to get admission to course of their choice, we hope the number of foreign nationals confirming admissions in IITs to increase as more of them are likely to grab seat in courses of their choice with a separate merit dedicated to fill the 10 percent supernumerary seats in each course,” Mandal added.
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