Admission to the IIST is through IIT-JEE (Indian Institute of Technology - Joint Entrance Examination).

The IIT-JEE prepares two lists for admission: the main list and the extended list. Candidates whose names figure in the extended list are eligible to join the IIST. Besides, students who belong to the main list but are keen on joining the IIST, can opt for a course in the IIST.

More than 3,000 students have already registered for admission to 156 seats in B.Tech. in Avionics and Aerospace, and M.Sc. in Applied Sciences for the academic year beginning 2008-09. Counselling will be held soon for them.

Dr. B.N. Suresh, Director, IIST, who retired recently as Director of VSSC, said: “This is the only space university to offer undergraduate programmes. Our ambition is to make it a truly world-class institution, where you can have undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes and feed quality manpower for India’s space programmes. We want to seamlessly integrate research and technology into academics.”

The IIST does not charge any fees at all from its students. Hostel accommodation and food are totally free of cost. Besides, every student is given Rs.3,000 a semester as book allowance. After passing their course with more than 60 per cent marks, the students should work in ISRO for five years and sign a bond to this effect. If they jump the bond, they will have to pay Rs.10 lakhs to the Department of Space. Dr. Suresh said ISRO normally recruited 300 - 350 engineers and scientists every year. Forty per cent to 50 per cent of 350 engineers would be recruited from the IIST. The rest would come from “the open market.” The courses’ syllabus gave a thrust to the two streams of science and technology in space.

The syllabi were prepared after an ISRO team visited the International Space University at Strasbourg in France, and Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in the U.S. A committee headed by Prof. R. Natarajan, former Director of IIT-Madras and former chairman, All-India Council for Technical Education, worked hard to frame the syllabi and curriculum.

What has excited the students is that they will do two experiments every semester in the VSSC or any ISRO centre, which will have real applications in space science and technology. They have already done projects relating to Chandrayaan-1 payload.