Four years after the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) opened its doors to students from commerce and humanities backgrounds, their participation remains limited. While there has been a 30% increase in applicants from these fields, rising from 14,000 in 2021 to 18,762 in 2025, they still only constitute about 2% of the total GATE applicants.
GATE is conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, primarily for admissions to postgraduate programs. The exam serves as a gateway for students seeking higher education and job opportunities in various fields.
According to Atul Negi, head of the mechanical engineering department at a GATE coaching institute, a lack of awareness regarding the opportunities GATE offers in humanities may be a factor in the low participation. Many aspirants associate GATE with engineering and may not consider applying with a humanities background. Some might also perceive the exam's difficulty level as high. Furthermore, many institutions besides the IITs' humanities departments do not consider GATE scores for master's or doctoral admissions. The introduction of the Central University Entrance Test (CUET) by the central government for postgraduate admissions may also have had an impact.
The IITs may need to promote their humanities programs more actively to increase participation from these fields. GATE opens doors to postgraduate studies in science, architecture, and the arts. Commerce graduates can apply for the GATE exam if they have completed or are in their third year of a bachelor's degree in a relevant subject. To be eligible, commerce students must have completed a 10+2+2 or 10+3+1 education format.
Among humanities subjects, psychology, English, and economics are the most popular, reflecting broader trends in humanities admissions across universities. Data from GATE 2025 indicates this preference, with English being the most sought-after humanities subject in GATE 2023 and 2024. The GATE XH paper includes economics as an optional section. Commerce students interested in pursuing higher education in economics can apply for it.
Conversely, there has been a significant surge in interest in computer science and related fields, with applications more than doubling, representing an increase of nearly 110% over the past three exams. Computer science and information technology have become the most popular choices, surpassing civil engineering in terms of applicant numbers. Data science and artificial intelligence, introduced as a GATE paper in 2024, are also gaining traction, with nearly 76,000 candidates with computer and mathematics backgrounds registering.
The eligibility criteria for GATE 2026 have been relaxed, now requiring a minimum of 10+2+3, allowing students in their third year of undergraduate studies to appear for the exam. Candidates can also choose two different papers from a prescribed set of combinations for the GATE Exam 2026. All test papers for GATE Exam 2026 will be entirely objective type. There is no age limit for the GATE exam.
