NEW DELHI:India may be home to over 800 universities, and premier IITs and IIMs, but has only 0.61 per cent of the total international students globally who are enrolled into institutes here. The country has just about 31,126 students from abroad compared to 3.77 lakh in China. Academicians blame it on the negative perception of Indian universities and lack of marketing of Indian campuses abroad. A senior faculty member of IIT Delhi said most of the US universities hold annual road shows to promote their courses, “but no such initiatives are shown by Indian institutes”.
A senior faculty of IIT Delhi said most Ivy league universities in the US, including University of Chicago, hold annual road shows here, meet academicians, officials and vice-chancellors to promote their courses, “but no such initiatives are shown by Indian institutes”.
According to Prof Furqan Qamar of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), the reasons could also be poor facilities, lack of efforts to market our higher education and the perception that the quality of higher education in India is still not world-class.
Qamar, who co-authored the report on ‘Internationalisation of higher education in India’, said a trend analysis since 1986 shows that the numbers have seen ups and downs. In 1986, the number of international students in India was 10,877, which rose to 13,707 in 1993. After that, the numbers started declining and touched an all-time low of 5,323 in 1998. Since then, the numbers have been increasing and are 31,126 as per the current statistics.
The report said Indian institutes should have 45 lakh international students as each institute is allowed 15 per cent foreign students’ intake.
According to the report, Maharashtra occupies the first place with 24.90 per cent of all the international students in the country, followed by Delhi (23.42 per cent), Karnataka (15.67 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (11.40 per cent), Punjab (6.31 per cent) and Telangana (5.45 per cent). Maharashtra has 7,750 students ahead of Delhi, which has 7,290.
Asian countries send the maximum students to India at 23,350, followed by Africa with 5,799 students.
The US attracts the most students from across the world but has only 457 students in Indian campuses. It is followed by Canada from North America with 175 students. India’s neighbour Nepal has 6,009 students enrolled in India, the largest share of foreign students from any country. Afghanistan has sent 3,855 students, while Pakistan has sent eight.
The report says at 5,665, IGNOU leads the Central universities in attracting most students, followed by the University of Delhi (1,011) and Banaras Hindu University (584).