American universities looking to expand operations in India

Updated on: Thursday, September 09, 2010

American universities were looking to expand operations in India, after the opening of this sector for foreign educational institutions here, a US official said.

"American universities are looking to expand operations in India, a country which sends the most number of students for studying in US," American centre director Anne Grimes said here today.

Grimes was here to take part in three-day 6th Anniversary Celebrations of- The American Corner- at Ahmedabad Management Association complex here beginning today.

"After the opening up of education sector in India, I have already been approached by a group in US who are looking at educational initiatives in India," American Centre Director Anne Grimes said.

"There are number of universities who have interest in India like the University of Chicago," she said adding that University of Columbia is doing something in Mumbai and will be visiting next month here, besides University of Illinois which is planning to begin its alumni association in India.

"India has the highest number of foreign students in United States which is around 1,03,000," Grimes said.

"The five posts of US in India, including consulates in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad together process 6,00,000 visa applications annually of which more than two thirds are issued visas," Grimes said.

"Nearly 20 per cent of the visas issued from India are for students," she said.

"We have initiated a slew of measures to step up our consular operations so that there is not so much of waiting time for getting visa," Grimes said.

Speaking about the uproar on hike in H1-B visa fee, Grimes said "US government is well aware of the concerns of Indian government and business houses have. I want to point out it is not targeted at India, its a worldwide change in the visa fee structure."

"India and the US have both greatly profited and benefited from growing economic relationship and that is going to continue," she said.

Replying to a query on possibility of roll back in hike of visa fee Grimes said "I can't speculate".

Speaking about Gujarat, Grimes said "The only regional Indian language that showed up in US census was Gujarati, over 280,000 Gujarati speakers are there in US, so I think there is lot of potential to build up relations with this state."

American universities looking to expand operations in India

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