NRI/PIO/Foreign students Admissions

The Indian education system has through the ages been identified with quality education, coupled with low cost of education delivery and living, making it an attractive proposition for international students to come and study here. Indian educational institutions offer world class education through a wide range of general and specialized courses,which are relevant to the needs of fast changing technological world. Indian qualifications are internationally recognized and Indian trained man power is sought after by all countries for industrial, research and academic support requirements.

In order to promote the admissions of Foreign Nationals, Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and Non‐Resident Indians (NRI) studying abroad to Undergraduate Engineering programmes in Centrally Funded institutions (CFIs) in India, the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India through an official order (No. F‐21 ‐2/2001 ‐TS1 Dated 14 ‐05 ‐2001) introduced DASA (Direct Admission of Students Abroad) Scheme from the academic session 2001‐2002 and laid down guidelines and procedures.

Recently, the ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India vide order no. F.22 ‐12/2007/RS.III Dated16‐04 ‐2009 has entrusted the coordination of the DASA admission process for Foreign Nationals / PIOs/ NRIs to NITK Surathkal for the Academic year 2010‐2013 to scale up the activity and provide a better interface between potential candidates and the Institutes. This admission process is applicable to all eligible foreign nationals / PIOs / NRIs.This year 24 national institute of technology (NITs) (including four newly established NITs)/ 3 Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIITs), 3 Centrally Funded Institutions and one Deemed University are participating in this DASA admission process for their undergraduate engineering programmes. In all, these 31 Institutes across the country are offering more than 2200 seats spread across various disciplines of engineering.

To make the process more user friendly, NITK Surathkal has revamped the admission mechanism through an online (electronic and web based) processing. This will make the admission process simple, transparent, less error prone, and less time consuming. The user friendly software for online application form filling and submission and processing has been developed in-house by NITK Surathkal allowing electronic application, choose filling, fee payment, counseling, seat allotment etc.along with provision of updating the information and performing application status check.

The basic requirement interns of academic and residential eligibility have been retained as in the previous years except for introduction of merit based seat allotment using a common competitive test based on SAT ‐II. Accordingly, this year apart from academic and residential requirements, students have to take SAT ‐II (Scholastic Aptitude Test)examination in Maths, Physics and Chemistry and the merit list will be prepared only based on the score obtain in SAT ‐II examination. Further, the annual tuition fee of US Dollars 4,000/‐ remains same as earlier and to attract more and better students, the fee for DASA application has been reduced to US Dollars 250/‐ w.e.f. this year as against US Dollar 350/‐ in the preceding year.

The process of DASA application submission commenced from 1 April, 2010 and the st students can submit their application with supporting documents on or before 30th June,2010. The entire process of online aplication form and eligibility schedule can be obtained by visiting the DASA website( www.dasanit.org) or NITK website (www.nitk.ac.in). The friends, well‐ wishers and relatives of prospective candidates who may be benefited by joining the premier Indian Engineering Institutes using DASA admission procedure are requested to give wide publicity and utilize the opportunity, so that the openings created by Government of India in premier technical institutes are effectively made use of .