Indian students suffer as foreign varsities slash grants

Updated on: Saturday, October 23, 2010

Candidates counting on big ticket scholarships in your favourite foreign university, here is some pensive news.

With several universities across the globe desperately trying to cut costs, as they are yet to emerge out of economic turmoil that hit the global financial market after the crash of Lehman Brothers bank in the US couple of years ago. Most of the institutions are reducing administrative expenses and aggressively raising gifts from emerging markets, but a few of them have already targeted their scholarship schemes and research funding.

The worst news has come from Greece that has been hit very badly. Just last week, its education and external affairs ministries stripped away every scholarship they offered international students from developing nations. ''We will not be able to offer scholarships from the ministry of education and another 100 from the ministry of external affairs this year to any student,'' said Christina Vasilatou, head of the consular section at the Greece embassy in Delhi.

She added, most Indian students head towards polytechnic colleges in Greece to study engineering. Although the situation is not so dramatic in other countries, several other universities have seen their endowments tumble dramatically too. They have also been forced to slash scores of scholarships.

Some foreign universities have sold parts of their campuses to raise funds as government grants have plunged, some other like Yale University have launched a slew of cost-cutting measures like installing occupancy sensors to bring down electricity bills and eliminating non-essential travel.

Indian students suffer as foreign varsities slash grants

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