Source: Press Information Bureau
The ‘Study in India’ programme’s primary objective is to target foreign students by branding India as an attractive education destination. As per the existing Government framework, provision of 10-15% supernumerary seats for foreign students is there. ‘Study in India’ programme would target the foreign students to be admitted as per this provision, which would not have any adverse impact on the number of seats/ admission of Indian students.
Objectives:
- To improve the soft power of India with the focus on the neighbouring countries and use it as a tool in diplomacy.
- To boost the number of inbound International students in India.
- To double India’s market share of global education exports from less than 1 percent to 2 percent.
- Increase in contribution of international students in the form of direct expenses, indirect expenses, spillover effects.
- Improvement in overall quality of higher education.
- Increase in global ranking of India as an educational destination.
- To reduce the export – Import imbalance in the number of International students.
- Growth of India’s global market share of International students
Other key features
- The programme focuses on attracting International students from select 30 plus countries across South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa.
- The programme envisages participation of select reputed Indian institutes/universities by way of offering seats for the International students at affordable rates, along with fee waivers to meritorious foreign students ranging from 100% to 25%.
- The programme also envisages setting up of call centres for support; algorithm for allocation of seats to the meritorious candidates.
- It also includes the selection of top 100 partner institutions on the basis of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grading and National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking;
- It also envisages branding activities in the target countries; and close coordination with Indian missions abroad and foreign missions in India.
Fee Waivers
The proposed fee waivers to meritorious foreign students in this policy will be decided by the Institute concerned based on the following criteria:
- 100% waiver of tuition fees only for the top 25% of students
- 50% waiver of tuition fees only for the next 25% students
- 25% waiver of tuition fees only for the next 25% students
- No waiver of tuition fee for the remaining 25% of students
Significance
- With the increase in number of foreign students, the global ranking of the Indian Higher Educational institutions will improve.
- The domestic students shall be exposed to a more diverse peer group and also get greater International exposure culminating in enhanced interest of Indian students to study in the country.
