Dip in foreign students: Pune univ loses top slot

Updated on: Friday, October 28, 2011

Indian universities have seen a decline in the number of foreign students. Pune University, which used to top the charts at one time, slipped to the number two spot in 2007-08. IGNOU stole a march over it after it jettisoned its earlier patchy approach, where students had to approach several counters to get information, and instead designed special information booklets for foreign students with handy data. An international students division came up two years ago.

With close to 1,500 international students, the rather young Mysore University has also scored in the game, attracting students from Asia and Africa. R Indira, director of the varsity’s International Centre, says, “We also have a lot of Chinese students coming down as part of twinning programmes. Currently there are about 100 Chinese students pursuing both undergraduate and postgraduate studies.” Iran sent the highest number of foreign students to this university (388 students now), besides Afghanistan and Tanzania.

At the Mysore University campus, most international students pursue commerce, followed by a Bachelor’s in business management and computer science. “Life for a student is relatively inexpensive because Mysore is a small city. Although we charge a higher fee for international students, it cannot by any stretch of the imagination be termed even expensive, forget exorbitant,” says Indira.

Apart from Pune’s Symbiosis, Manipal, another deemed university, has been maintaining a steady flow of international students.

K Ramnarayan, VC of Manipal University, says nearly half of its international students are from Malaysia. “We have had a long-standing relationship with Malaysia, and the health sciences programme that we offer is recognised by the Malaysian government,” he says.

“This provides us an edge in drawing students from that country. A good number of students come from the US and Canada because of the twinning programmes we have been offering.”

Around the world, internationalisation has caught on like never before. Experts say that the classroom called India will turn global after foreign campuses arrive on its shores.

Dip in foreign students: Pune univ loses top slot

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