GATE 2021: Arts & Commerce students to appear for exams now; Check new amendments here

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2021 is likely to observe a major shift in practice as students from arts and commerce background can take the exams now.

To be conducted by IIT Bombay in 2021, GATE is a qualifying exam for admissions in postgraduate and PhD programs in science and technology. However, in recent years, GATE turned out to be a significant placement criteria for PSUs as well. 

Read Details Here: GATE 2021 exam dates released

Additionally, eligibility criteria for the GATE of 10+2+4 system to be replaced by 10+2+3, meaning students in third year of undergraduate programs can appear for the exams. 

Check: IIT Bombay Admissions 2020

As IIT Bombay introduced humanities and social sciences, the institute decided upon turning GATE 2021 to be equally inclusive. Under humanities, IIT Bombay offers postgraduate courses on Philosophy, Sociology, linguistics, economics and psychology. 

GATE 2021: New Improvements Explained 

At present, premier institutes like IIT Bombay require students to have a valid UGC-NET score for admissions to masters in humanities. 

But such students cannot access HRD scholarships. With GATE scores, students will enjoy added advantage of availing government scholarships. 

Check Now: GATE 2021 Rank Predictor

So far, placements remained restricted to science and engineering students. However, this breakthrough improvisation is expected to widen horizons for arts and commerce students henceforth. 

As environmental issues have been the major concerns, environmental science and engineering will be the two new subjects in GATE. 

Read: GATE 2021 Complete Syllabus and Exam Pattern

With the pandemic situation, job opportunities may see a dip and many would pursue higher education, this adding to their advantage.

As per Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, IIT-Bombay, "This will create much-needed career opportunities for those in humanities and social sciences areas as this may serve as one single standardized criterion for admission to various masters and doctoral programmes in various IITs and other universities in India."

With new amendments, IITs expect a major rise in GATE aspirants the following year. Over 10 lakh students appear in this exam, every year. 

GATE 2021 Tentative Schedule 

As scheduled for February 2021, the exam will be conducted spread over a length of 6 days unlike other years when the exam wrapped up in 4 days. GATE 2021 will be held on February 5-7 and February 12-14. 

To add on, students will be able to take exams in two subjects compared to one as practiced so far. However, there will be a prescribed set of combinations to choose from.