IIT Kharagpur announces scholarships for Australian students

To boost its ongoing academic exchange programs with Australian institutions, IIT Kharagpur today announced a competitive high-value scholarship for students from the University of Melbourne, Australia enrolled under the Dual Doctoral Programme jointly conducted by the two institutions.

Each student would receive an annual funding of AUD 30,000 (approximately ₹14.6 lakh) - an amount equal to their home scholarships - which would cover their tuition and other fees, living expenses and travel costs for the programme. The scholarship which will be highly competitive will be offered initially to two inbound foreign students from the prestigious Australian university starting from academic year 2020-21.

IIT Kharagpur conducts joint doctoral programs with several world-class Australian universities such as Curtin, Wollongong and James Cook, designed to build academic and research collaborations from the grounds up. Admission into the joint doctoral programs is highly competitive, and successful progress requires rigorous time-bound adherence to milestones that are acceptable to both institutions. The student carries out his/her research under the joint supervision of faculty members from both institutions and needs to spend a minimum of one year at the partner institution. A single thesis is written and submitted to both institutions who then review it to their own exacting standards. If the thesis is accepted by both institutions, the student is awarded the joint doctoral degree.

Since its launch in 2018, nine students from IIT Kharagpur have enrolled in the joint doctoral program with University of Melbourne while one student from the University of Melbourne came to IIT Kharagpur under the DDP.

“We realized that there is a need for providing financial assistance to the foreign students as many of them support their families back home with their stipend. Just as our students studying in top foreign universities are funded under various scholarship and fellowship schemes, if we want to attract high quality international students, it is essential that we provide competitive scholarships,” opined Prof. Baidurya Bhattacharya, Dean, International Relations at IIT Kharagpur.

In addition to Australia, IIT Kharagpur is also setting up joint doctoral programmes with University of Auckland in New Zealand and the University of Alberta in Canada. The varsity is further exploring to expand the scope of such dual degree programmes and funding opportunities to other foreign students especially in ASEAN and SAARC regions.

Earlier this year, the IIT saw a surge in inbound applications from foreign students on the launch of Asoke Dey Sarkar International Program, a scholarship opportunity for Masters and Doctoral students.