The “Study in India” programme has been approved by the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD) in collaboration with Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
- This programme aims to attract foreign students to pursue higher education in India.
Aim
The “Study in India” programme aims to boost India’s share of the international students and subsequently improve global reputation and rankings of Indian educational institutions. Its basic objective is to encourage more and more foreign students to choose India as a destination to pursue their higher education. It aims to double India’s market share of global education exports from less than 1% to 2%. It is likely to improve the global ranking of Indian educational institutes.Key Facts
- The ‘Study in India’ programme is similar to the initiative launched by Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Canada.
- It is aimed at attracting foreign students in 160 public and private universities which will offer 15,000 seats to them in the academic year 2018-19. About 55 per cent of these seats will offer fee waivers to students from abroad.
- Currently, India is home to about 45,000 international students, which accounts for just 1 per cent of the global student mobility.
- With ‘Study in India’, the government hopes the country will start attracting 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh international students by the year 2022.
- The programme will target students from 30 countries, primarily in Asia and Africa, including Nepal, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Thailand, Malaysia, Egypt, Kuwait, Iran, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Rwanda.
- The government, at present, permits a provision of 10 per cent to 15 per cent supernumerary seats for foreign students in higher education.
- To attract talented foreign students, the government will offer complete fee waiver to top 25 per cent meritorious applicants, 50 per cent fee waiver to the next 25 per cent applicants and 25 per cent waiver to the next 25 per cent foreign students.
- The institutes concerned will bear expenditure on fee waiver based on cross-subsidisation or through its existing funding.
- The seats for foreign students will not affect number of seats which are meant for Indian students in any educational institute.
- External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has launched a portal to help prospective students get information about the institutions and also register and apply to the programmes of their choice through it.
