US College Board to ease admission process for Indian universities

Providing a common platform to the private Indian Universities and the students, the College Board of the USA, that conducts SAT, has announced the launch of India Global Higher Education Alliance. Through this, they will administer the common entrance examination for various courses for the universities they have associated with. This will ease otherwise lengthy application process organize and will enable Indian students to appear for just one exam instead of taking separate entrance tests for each varsity.

Linda Liu, Vice President, International, College Board said, “While the College Board has delivered the SAT and Advanced Placement in India for decades, the time is right for us to work closely with innovating universities in India to provide more access to underserved populations, rethink admissions in an Indian context, and ensure India’s leading universities continue to shine on the world stage.”

The founding member universities include Ashoka University, Azim Premji University, Manav Rachna University, Ahmedabad University, BML Munjal University, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Manipal University, McGill University and University of Hong Kong.

Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McGill, Pomona College, Purdue University, University of Cambridge, and the University of Hong Kong are affiliate members. Affiliate members have tackled the challenge of attracting diverse groups of students from their home countries, as well as increasing global recruitment.

The US Board has announced scholarship programmes for the low-income students in India who have achieved high marks.

The SAT fee reduction for the Indian students will be scaled according to the family income. For students from families making less than Rs 4 lakh income, they will be charged 10 per cent of the US fee, which makes it roughly 600 to 700 and for students from families making an annual income from 4 lakh to 6 lakh will receive a fee reduction of 50 per cent (roughly makes it Rs 300 to Rs 3500). The current fee structure for the SAT is $95 without essay and $109 with the essay.