‘Study in India’ to attract foreign students

The Indian Government is eager to attract an increasing number of foreign students to a wide range of academic and research institutions across the country. In line with this, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has approved the ‘Study in India’ programme, which will target foreign students by branding India as an attractive education destination. The programme will aim to boost the number of inbound international students in India, doubling the nation’s market share of global education exports from less than 1 per cent to 2 per cent. Government regulation currently allows 10-15 per cent additional seats for foreign students. ‘Study in India’ programme would target foreign students under this provision, and not have any adverse impact on the number of seats of Indian students. The initiative will help India rise in global rankings of higher educational destination.
The Government has approved a budget of more than US$23 million for the ‘Study in India’ programme over 2018-20 which will be primarily spent for promotion activities. To augment interest, financial incentives have been proposed for meritorious students. The proposed fee waivers to meritorious foreign students under this policy will be decided by the Institute concerned based on the following criteria: (1) 100 per cent waiver of tuition fees for the top 25 per cent students; (2) 50 per cent waiver of tuition fees for the next 25 per cent students; (3) 25 per cent waiver of tuition fees for the next 25 per cent students; (4) No waiver of tuition fee for remaining 25 per cent of students. The expenditure on the fee waiver will have to be borne by the Institute concerned, based on cross-subsidisation or through its existing funding. No additional Government funding has been proposed.
The initiative comes amid India’s steady effort to improve the overall quality and scope of higher education and infrastructure in a cross section of academic disciplines. Increasing footfall of international students will help raise contribution in the form of direct spends, indirect spends and spillover effects. Besides aiding national income growth, this will reduce India’s Export-Import imbalance in the number of international students. After China, India is the second largest contributor to the annual international student traffic. While there were more than 165,000 Indian students enrolled in colleges abroad, there were over 45,000 foreign students enrolled in India during 2015-16. Meanwhile, India has emerged as the preferred destination for education for students from the developing economies, especially from India’s neighborhood. The programme will also aid India’s diplomatic efforts.