Centre goes all out to woo foreign students to India

With India going big on its “soft power” in the international arena, it plans to widen its ambit beyond Yoga and art and culture and take it to the Indian universities. The idea is to attract a larger number of foreign students to India and encouraging them to take up technical and vocational courses in the country. And in order to attract students from around the world, the government is also considering offering complimentary courses like Yoga, music, Sanskrit and classical dance, along with technical subjects like engineering, medical and management in different streams.

The government has set the target of increasing the number of foreign students in India to at least 2 lakh by 2023; it is nearly 46,000 at present. To execute the plan, the Narendra Modiled government has set up an inter-ministerial group to chalk out an action plan and suggest ways to increase the number of foreign students in Indian educational institutions. The first brainstorming sitting of the group will be held in Pune on 16-17 January 2020. The inter-ministerial group will have representation from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministries of External Affairs, HRD, Health and Aaayush, Culture and Tourism, among others.

Experts said that the foreign students in India have largely been attracted by unstructured and nontechnical subjects like Yoga, music and culture; various classical dance forms also attract foreign students, but rarely have they shown interest in taking up technical subjects in India. Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, president of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), said: “India has some worldclass technical institutes like the IITS and the IIMS, but the number of foreign students in these institutes is negligible. We aim at having bright students from around the world in these centres and other Indian universities. This will serve the twin purpose of giving them quality education as well as instilling a bond for India. Our education system can be a big source of India’s growing soft power globally.”

In a representation to the Niti Aayog, the ICCR has also suggested offering foreign students a liberal combination of courses like Yoga with engineering so as to meet their desires. “Universities offering a combination of courses such as management and classical music, engineering and Yoga should be set up. This will offer foreign students the flexibility of taking up subjects of their choice,” Sahasrabuddhe said.

According to a UNESCO Institute of Statistics report, India has emerged as a preferred destination for students from the South Asian countries, but the Modi government is seeking to attract a large cohort of students from the United States and a host of European countries. At present, India receives maximum students from countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Nepal.

Globally, India ranks 26th in the list of destination countries for foreign students while it stands at the second spot in terms of source countries, i.e. the countries sending its students abroad for studies. According to the UNESCO report, as many as 3.06 lakh Indian students have been studying in different countries.

An All India Survey on Higher Education conducted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development says that the number of foreign students in India went up by almost 65% from 16,000 in 1977-78 to 46,144 in 2017-18. However, the situation has become grim in the last one decade as the number of foreign students has grown by less than 2% per year since 2007-08. Similarly, an assessment by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) says that the spending of foreign students in India has declined from $557 million in 2015-16 to $479 million in 2017-18. On the contrary, the spending of Indian students abroad has gone up from $1.9 billion in 2013-14 to $2.8 billion in 2017-18.

According to the MHRD survey, there are 757 universities, 38,056 colleges and 11,922 stand-alone institutions in India, but only about 100 universities and a few institutes are attracting foreign students. The ICCR has also suggested setting up a single-agency workforce on this mandate. It has also proposed setting up “Exclusive Education Zones” on the lines of “Exclusive Economic zones” where single-window operating system could be created. Apart from offering niche courses, the ICCR has suggested new courses and institutions in the Aayush sector as well as setting up a university of performing and visual arts offering degrees and structured courses in these streams. Protests have broken out in the northeast against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2019, as the Centre is adamant on reintroducing the Bill in the upcoming session of Parliament, expected in December. Early reports of protests came from Manipur where students and women came together under the banner of Manipur People Against Citizenship Amendment Bill (MANPAC) and lined up along the town’s main roads holding posters opposing the Bill on 3 October. Similar public gatherings and protests voicing their opposition were also reported from Kohima and Shillong. In Assam, too, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) has started its statewide protest against the Bill leading to the arrest of its leader, Akhil Gogoi. Bedanta Laskar, advisor of KMSS, told The Sunday Guardian: “There are around 20 lakh Hindu Bangladeshis in Assam and 1.7 crore Hindu Bangladeshis in Bangladesh. Thus, giving citizenship to them will pose a threat to indigenous culture, economy and demography of the region. So, there is no way this Bill can be accepted. The whole Northeast will unitedly protest against the Bill.” Lurinjyoti Gogoi, general secretary of the All Assam Students’ Union, the signatory organisation of the Assam Accord, said, “Our stand is clear—whether it is Hindu or Muslim, no Bangladeshi can be accepted. We have been opposing the Bill from the beginning. There will be a twoway strategy—protest on the ground and prevent the Bill in the Rajya Sabha with the help of the Opposition and regional alliance parties.” He also said that talks were on with political parties across the country to prevent the Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Sources said that the Janata Dal United, along with some other alliance parties of the BJP at the Centre, would likely oppose the Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma have expressed their opposition to the CAB. The CAB, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Jains, Hindus and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who entered the country before 31 December 2014, was passed by the Lok Sabha in January this year. However, it lapsed as the NDA government at the Centre could not table it in the Rajya Sabha. BJP sources said that this time, the party may try to pass the Bill in the Rajya Sabha first and then the Lok Sabha.