From the next academic year, the Ministry of Education will not entertain the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) score for admissions under the Direct Admission of Students Abroad (DASA) at the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs) and other premier technical institutions in the country.
However, the SAT, a standardised test widely used for college admissions in the U.S., will be considered this academic session. The selection of admission of students under DASA will be through the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) from 2021-22.
Sources said the National Testing Agency (NTA), which has been conducting the JEE (Main) on computer-based test, will prepare the merit list for admission under DASA category separately.
The SAT, developed and published by the college board in the U.S., had been falling out of favour in many institutions over various allegations, including hiring of imposters to take the examinations, sources said.
At the same time, the existing 5% supernumerary seats (within 15% of supernumerary quota of DASA) reserved for children of Indian workers in the Gulf — UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia — will continue like in the previous years.
Students securing admission under Children of Indian Workers in Gulf (CIWG) quota need to pay $300 non-refundable registration fee and semester fee at par with the fee prescribed for other regular students.
Other students under the DASA category will also have to pay a registration fee of $300 as well as the semester fee of $4,000 and $2000 for non-South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and SAARC categories.
Hostel fee and other expenses, which may typically range from $400-$800 per annum and may vary from institute to institute, are required to be paid by the applicant directly to the institution at the time of admission.
The DASA category applicants should have a minimum total valid score of 1,800 out of 2,400 in SAT-2 subject tests (Mathematics Level 2, Physics and Chemistry) to secure admission to the NIT. This apart, a minimum of at least 60% aggregate marks (average of all subjects of qualifying examination taken together) or 6.50 CGPA (on a 10 point scale) or equivalent in the qualifying examination.
However, a candidate can secure admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) only through the JEE (Advanced) conducted by one of the seven zonal IITs at Roorkee, Kharagpur, Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay, Madras, and Guwahati under the guidance of the Joint Admission Board.
