Indian Universities rope in more foreign students
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 14 August 2008, 00:54 IST
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Mumbai: As the competition from foreign universities comes calling in the home turf, Indian universities have joined the rat race of wooing the foreign students. Now, Indian universities have witnessed an increase in the fresh enrolment of international students in domestic varsities from 13,267 in 2004-05 to 14,456 in 2005-06. According to a recent report published by a wing of the Union HRD ministry, finds that the change is due to some of the initiatives that have been put in place by these institutions. Some of them are establishing exclusive departments for international students, setting up fully air-conditioned accommodation equipped with hot plates, dryers and other things out of an American hostel. In one year, the enrolment figures the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) ramped up by 300 percent. In 2006, it had the maximum number of international students in India, 3,000, up from the 963 in 2004-05. IGNOU went up the slots after designing special information booklets for foreign students, instead of the earlier patchy approach that required students to visit several windows to get information. A study by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) shows the University of Pune followed IGNOU closely. Though the western university managed to get 300 more students than in 2004-05 after its international students' cell strengthened its marketing pitch, it slid down from the numero uno position to have 2,455 internationals students on its rolls. In south India, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) invested in setting up separate fully air-conditioned hostels for its NRI students. For its MBBS programme, which attracts several Indian Americans, MAHE joined hands with international universities to allow medical aspirants to pursue a part of their programme at the Manipal campus and then transfer credits to an American medical college, thus bringing down the cost of higher education, reported Times of India. The study also points out about 80 percent of international students were enrolled in undergraduate programmes. Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental said most international students want to pursue economics and commerce. Data collected by the AIU from 1992-93 to 2003-04 suggests that the number of international students coming to India has steadily increased during the first half of the 1990s, with a peak of over 13,000 achieved in 1993-94. "This trend was probably due to the fact that while many developed countries, and especially the United Kingdom and Australia, were aggressively marketing their educational ware, India was inactive in this regard," states a research paper by Veena Bhalla, an AIU member. In 2005-06, most students came from West Asia, followed by South and Central Asian countries. The UAE sent the maximum students to India for higher education. In 2004-05, the UAE sent 1,500 students, which rose to 2,034 in 2005-06. Neighbouring Nepal followed closely with 1,411 students, while 1,264 students from Iran came to India to pursue a degree.

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