Dr Manasvi M Kamat
On a very positive note for our State of Goa, our Goa University is said to have received a record number of international students across sciences, humanities and management disciplines this year with the active support of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), the cultural wing of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Very recently the Goa University also took pains to organise a conference of foreign students enrolled across various courses in the varsity and affiliated colleges with an intention of creating a ‘Goa Declaration on Foreign Students in India’ for onward submission to the State and the Central government and for implementing the measures needed for the welfare of its international students.
It is heartening to note that there has been a 20 per cent increase in the number of international students coming to India for higher studies in the last five years. The increasing efforts by the Central government and the respective institutions at enhancing its student profile is changing the perception that only Indians go abroad to the US for study. According to data, most of the foreign students come from neighbouring Nepal. Interestingly, more than 1,500 students came from the US too. Within India, the State of Karnataka remains the hottest destination for these students.
It is found that India was home to 47,427 foreign students from 164 different countries from across as per data of the latest All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE) for 2018-19 conducted by the MHRD. Compare these figures with countries like that of the US. The US in the same year, for instance, was home to more than 10 lakh foreign students, including over 1,90,000 from India alone.
‘Study in India’ initiative is one of the most ambitious projects of the government with an avowed goal to quadruple its foreign student numbers to 2 lakhs by the year 2023 from the existing numbers. The government has also pumped in Rs 150 crore for the scheme to facilitate internationalisation of Indian higher education. It is believed that the increase in the number of foreign students brings higher forex, revenues for our institutions. These students help in improving diversities in the campus and also have a bearing on improved rankings of India’s higher education institutions. Also, Indian students are exposed to diverse cultural knowledge.
The AISHE data indicates that the highest number foreign students came to India from Nepal which contributed 26 per cent, followed by Afghanistan (10 per cent), Bangladesh, Sudan and Bhutan (around 4 per cent each), Nigeria, Yemen and the US contributing to around 3 per cent each while Sri Lanka and Iran contribute around 2 per cent. Although the maximum number of foreign students come from Nepal, the maximum number enrolled in PhD are from Ethiopia (295 students), followed by Yemen (149).
Looking at the State-wise distribution, Karnataka has recorded the highest number of students coming from foreign countries, which are 10,023 followed by Maharashtra with 5003 students, Punjab (4533), Uttar Pradesh (4514), Tamil Nadu (4101), Haryana (2872), Delhi (2141), Gujarat (2068) and Telangana (2020).
India is targeting nearly four times the current number of foreign students. Keeping this in mind, last week India formally launched an initiative to fund 1,000 scholars from South East Asian countries to pursue PhD at its 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), a move that could help internationalise its premier technology campuses and boost academic ties with East Asian neighbours. For promoting IITs as global education destinations, the IIT Council in the last week has also decided to exempt foreign students from taking the JEE main exam, which is the screening exam for selection to IIT entrance exam known as JEE advanced. With this change, the foreign students will now appear for the JEE advanced directly. This new rule will also apply to OCI cardholders who have the Overseas Citizenship of India. Encouraging foreign students to study in IITs was one of the major agendas of the council meeting held last week. Apart from reducing the selection test burden, the council has also decided to offer attractive scholarships to foreign students.
In another welcome attempt to make admission processes easier, the IITs in the country have started offering single-window admission facility to foreign students. Some 600 PG and doctoral courses are on offer for foreign students, including those of Indian origin, on a single platform from the 2020 academic year providing a convenient interface to view and apply to multiple programmes simultaneously.
US, China, UK and Australia are the lead countries with the maximum number of international students on their campuses. China attracts more international students than any other Asian power and its institutions of higher education are currently home to approximately 500,000 international students while the US currently hosts over twice as many international students as China, contributing an estimated around $45 billion to the US economy. The UK attracts slightly fewer international students than China, but they still contributed a net sum of around $30 billion to their economy.
Though India has not been able to attract foreign students despite having such a big higher education system in place, it feels good to note that we have now realised our potential and have started with the process of ‘opening-up’ our doors. It is hoped that the pace of growth will only intensify in future. Congratulations to Goa
University and India as a whole for the first-mile achievement. We expect much more to follow.
