JNU to spread wings to SAARC countries

INDIA: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), one of the premier universities in India, plans to open entrance examination centres in all the SAARC countries, with the newest one in Pakistan.

‘We want to attract students from all over the world to study in our university. Hence we are planning to open our entrance examination centres in Pakistan, and consecutively in all the SAARC countries soon,’ H.B. Bahidar, chief proctor of JNU, told IANS.

As of now, JNU has its examination centres in three South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries - Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

The SAARC has eight countries as members - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal and Afghanistan.

This initiative of JNU will help aspiring students from India’s SAARC neighbours to appear for the entrance examination in their own countries and then come here to pursue studies.

The proposal, however, is yet to be given a green signal by the academic council of the university.

‘These plans will first have to be agreed upon by the academic council of the university. Once that happens, we will start opening the centres in Pakistan, Afghanistan and the rest of the SAARC countries, one by one,’ Bahidar said.

Bahidar said that the university gets a good number of overseas students, with those from Bangladesh topping the list.

‘Many students from Sri Lanka also come to the university to pursue studies in Buddhism,’ he said.

The varsity also has plans to open an entrance centre in Bahrain to attract expatriate Indians from the Gulf region. ‘We do not have a centre in the Gulf countries. The centre in Bahrain will help aspiring expatriate Indians to appear for the test and pursue studies with us,’ Bahidar said.

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