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Journalism of Courage
India has almost caught up with the US in the number of students taking the gateway exam for pursuing a Master’s or doctorate in America, thanks to a doubling of Indian test-takers over the past decade, with a gap of just 10,000 examinees separating the two countries.
Data obtained by The Indian Express show that the number of Indian students taking the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) increased from 56,782 in 2012-2013 to 114,647 in 2021-2022, and nearly half the test takers last year came from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone.
The GRE is a gateway admissions exam for post-graduate (called graduate in the US) programmes, mainly in the United States. Higher education institutions in the UK, Canada, Australia and Ireland also accept GRE scores. It provides universities with a common criterion by which to compare applicants from all over the world. The GRE, as conducted by Educational Testing Services (ETS) headquartered in the US, assesses proficiency in mathematics, reading, and writing.
The test’s growing popularity in India is in line with the significant increase in the number of Indian nationals enrolled in US graduate schools, with a 48% rise (from 68,869 to 1,02,024) observed in the 2021-2022 academic year.
India’s rapid growth in GRE figures contradicts recent trends in the US, where universities are challenging the importance of standardised assessments. It also makes for a stark contrast against China. The latter has only increased by 20% in the past ten years. In 2021-2022, 50,758 Chinese students took the GRE, less than half of the Indian test takers.
Within India, GRE takers are concentrated in the south. In the testing year 2021-22, half (or roughly 58,000) of the 1,14, 647 examinees were from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Since 2015-16, Hyderabad has topped the table, outranking major cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru in the volume of students sitting the GRE. The city saw consistent growth following a trough in 2017-18. The testing year 2021-22 saw an all-time high of 25,347 candidates from Hyderabad taking GRE, a figure three times greater than 2017-18 (8,041).
By comparison, the testing year 2021-22 saw Mumbai at 5,759; Bengaluru at 5,564; Pune at 3,689; Chennai at 3,278; Delhi at 2,845 and Kolkata at just 1,200. The past few years have seen gradual decline in all the aforementioned cities.
Moreover, numerous Tier 2 cities are on the rise, most of which are in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Both 2020-21 and 2021-22 saw Guntur and Vijayawada in the top five, the former outshining metropoles Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and Delhi in both instances. Following a low of 1,205 test takers in 2019-20, Guntur has seen rapid growth, reaching a high of 8,983 in 2021-22.
Other southern Tier 2 cities such as Visakhapatnam, Warangal, and Nellore have also fared well this past year. The same can be said for numerous Tier 3 cities. Khammam, for example, has entered the top ten following a 150% rise in test takers — from 888 in 2015-16 to 2,221 in 2021-22.
“The concentration of GRE test-takers in Andhra and Telangana is not surprising at all, given the region’s strong emphasis on education and career aspirations. I am from Andhra, and most families here aspire for their children to become doctors or engineers, with a particular interest in sending them abroad, especially to the US. You won’t see this level of preoccupation with engineering, sciences and America in any other state. Since the GRE is seen as a gateway to pursuing master’s in engineering and sciences in the US, I think this explains the sharp increase in candidates from Andhra and Telangana,” IIT Hyderabad director BS Murthy told The Indian Express.
Incidentally, in January 2021, there were reports of cheating by students taking the GRE from homes – due to Covid – from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In February this year, four were arrested by Hyderabad Police for allegedly facilitating an estimated 50 students cheat in the GRE and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test.
The increasing popularity of the GRE in India has largely offset the exam’s rapid decline in the United States, where the number of test takers has decreased by 63%, from 3,37,782 in 2012-2013 to 1,24,151 in 2021-2022.
A spokesperson for ETS attributed the significant drop in the number of GRE test takers in the US to changing attitudes towards assessments. American universities are reconsidering the role of tests such as the GRE or SAT in ensuring an even playing field for all applicants.
According to an investigation published by the academic journal “Science” in 2022, just 3% of PhD programs in eight disciplines at 50 top-ranked US universities required applicants to submit GRE scores, compared to 84% in 2018.
“The United States is kind of a unique context at the moment where there is a broader review on the role of assessments in admissions. And so there’s a relook at this not just for the GRE, which is a graduate entrance exam, but also for undergraduate entrance as well for tests like the SATs and ACT. So in the US context, there’s a broader discussion around the role of assessments, what is the type of assessments, are assessments fair, are they equitable? Are they able to reliably help predict or give a signal?” Amit Sevak, ETS’s global CEO, told The Indian Express.
Despite this shift in mindset, Sevak believes that standardised assessments like the GRE remain the most meritocratic way to provide equity and open up opportunities in education. “As of yet, there is no alternative way to achieve these goals,” he added.
The increasing acceptance of GRE scores by higher education institutions in India is also a likely factor behind the test’s growing popularity here. Ninety-nine programmes in India accept GRE scores for admissions, including Indian Institutes of Management in Ahmedabad and Kolkata and the Indian School of Business for some of their courses.
