Students across the world will now be able to pursue education in prominent Indian educational institutions, thanks to the efforts of the Central government for launching ‘Study in India’ portal on Wednesday.
The portal was jointly launched by Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and Union Minister of State for HRD Dr Satya Pal Singh.
“The ‘Study in India’ is an innovative initiative to attract students from our partner countries in South Asia, South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa to come and experience the very best of academic learning from the top institutions in India,” Swaraj said, adding, “This will be achieved through systematic brand-building, identifying quality institutions for receiving the students, creating suitable infrastructure and facilitation structures.”
While launching the portal, she further said that ‘Study in India’ portal will become a single window to cover all aspects relating to studying in India for foreign students.
The scheme, which was launched by the HRD Ministry and aided by the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affair and Ministry of Commerce, will entail the admission of foreign students from 30 countries — with a focus on South Asia, South East Asia, West Asia and Africa — to study in 160 quality higher educational institutions of India as per NIRF ranks and NAAC grades.
“Now, India is again surging ahead in education sector with more than 40,000 colleges and more than 800 universities,” Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said in a video message, adding, “Top most colleges have been granted graded autonomy. Graded autonomy will help educational institutions to expand on their own; they can improve their programs, launch new programs as per the need.”
The HRD minister further said that ‘Study in India’ will open the gates of prominent educational institutions of India for foreign students and added that with the recent reforms in education sector, now India has become a prominent center for affordable and quality education.
The goal of the ambitious scheme is to increase the number of foreign students in India to 2 lakh by 2023.
“With the integration of e-SANAD and NAD – National Academic Depository, the education system in India is now more transparent,” Union Minister of State for HRD Dr Satyapal Singh said, adding, “For the first time, prominent Indian Educational Institutions have been opened up under this programme which will be of benefit not only to the foreign students but also to India as well.”
At present India is hosting around 45,000 international students, which accounts for 1 per cent of the global student mobility.
The Study in India scheme, with a sanctioned budget of INR150 crore for two years, will promote India as a top destination for higher education and funnel demand in the direction of the supernumerary seats.
Calling the endeavour a major step forward to freeing Indian education market for foreign students Higher Education Secretary R Subrahmanyam said that about 55 per cent of the total seats on offer at these 160 institutes will come with fee waivers.
“This year 15, 000 seats have been offered by 160 Institutions under the programme,” Subrahmaniyam said.
Supported by an App and a Helpline number, the Study in India programme will not only provide information on the latest offerings on Indian education but also facilitate admissions to the foreign students and help them make informed choices based on individual aptitudes and career goals.