IIT Guwahati to open JEE centre in Bhutan

The IIT Guwahati will open a Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) centre in Bhutan to encourage students from the neighbouring country to study in IITs and join research projects offered by it.

The IIT Guwahati signed an agreement with Sherubtse College under Royal Bhutan University, which will try to facilitate international academic co-operation and exchange teaching and research experiences.

“We are happy to sign the Terms of Reference with Sherubtse College under which IIT Guwahati will set up a JEE centre in Bhutan to encourage students to join the IITs. We also encourage students from Bhutan to undertake full-time programmes or work as research interns in our departments,” said a statement quoting the director of IIT Guwahati, Prof. T.G Sitharam.

Sources said the Bhutan centre was part of IIT Guwahati’s plan to reach out to students in South East Asian countries as the Centre is projecting Guwahati as the gateway to those countries.

There are similar examination centres in Dubai (UAE), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Kathmandu (Nepal), Singapore and Colombo (Sri Lanka) to join IITs.

The agreement was signed during the two-day long visit by a six-member team of Sherubtse College on Monday and Tuesday. The delegation met other faculty and officials of IIT Guwahati, which included a meeting with the Chairman of the Joint Entrance Examination Cell.

The delegation also visited the Centre for Environment, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Centre for Education technology, and the Centre for Energy on Tuesday.

The IIT Guwahati completed 25 years of its inception this year. It has 11 departments and five inter-disciplinary academic centres covering all major engineering, science and humanities disciplines, offering B. Tech, BDes, MA, MDes, MTech, MSc and PhD programmes. The institute also offers a residential campus to 412 faculty members and more than 6,000 students at present.