Guidelines before admitting for foreign students

Updated on: Monday, April 27, 2009

Pune: After the Foreign Registration Office (FRO) of Pune Police issued guidelines to city colleges that have to be followed before granting admission to foreign students, college authorities say that enough checks and measures are in place.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Ravindra Sengaonkar (Special Branch) has issued guidelines to 70 colleges in Pune on Friday under section 7 (3) of the Foreigner's Act, 1946. If colleges fail to comply by these guidelines, the concerned officer from the educational institute will have to face imprisonment up to one month or a fine of Rs 500 or both. Although authorities from leading colleges say that enough measures are being taken to curb foreign students from overstaying their visa, they would follow the police directives.

“Under our online admission system, the software disallows students whose passport does not have at least six months validity from the commencement of the course. This ensures the student does not have to renew the passport after taking admission in our institute,” said Ashima Agashe, head of international students’ office of Symbiosis International University that has more than 2000 foreign students studying in various institutes.

Agashe said that the institute sends details of the students newly admitted for regular courses to FRO in June-July, while these details are sent more than once a year for short-term courses offered by the English Language teaching Institute of Symbiosis (ELTIS). “Other than that we are in touch with an officer from the FRO who visits our international students’ office every Thursday. We also submit a quarterly report about foreign students from various courses to the university’s vice-chancellor,” she said.

Vishwajeet Kadam, secretary of Bharati Vidyapeeth University, that admits more than 1000 foreign students for various courses said that he was out of station and was unaware of the guidelines issued by the police. “However, we will undoubtedly follow the police directive. We already have a separate cell that keeps a check on foreign students,” he said.

Police inspector Bhanupratap Barge had cited an example at a press conference on Friday wherein an American girl with Indian parents had not paid her visa extension fees for 19 years and studied in St Helena’s School, Nowrosjee Wadia College and Fergusson College.

Commenting on it, Bhagwan Thakur, principal of the college said that it was a rare incident that happens once among hundreds of students. “Although there are other reasons like ignorance because of which the student might have overstayed the visa, police always think from the criminal angle,” he said.

Thakur added that the college has a person appointed to take care of all affairs related to foreign students’ admission. “It is the duty of FRO to keep track of illegal activities of foreign students, which is being pushed on the colleges. If the college is taking at least twice the usual fees from foreign students and gaining revenue out of the same, colleges must cooperate with them rather than eyeing them as suspects,” he added.

Accoridng to police, 164 foreign students have been issued 'leave India' notices, while 22 have been deported from September 2008.

For more information visit : educationtimes.com

Guidelines before admitting for foreign students

More Education news