More overseas destinations beckon scores of higher study aspirants

Updated on: Thursday, May 05, 2011

She had come all the way from Madurai to explore options of pursuing a postgraduate degree course in biotechnology in a ‘traditional' European university. Anitha Aswini, a graduate in biotechnology from Madurai Kamaraj University, was one among the many aspirants who used The Hindu Education Plus International Education Fair 2011 in Coimbatore as a platform to chart out their higher studies abroad.

The fair had participants from universities, colleges and educational institutions from all parts of the world offering information on various courses. The visitors made use of the opportunity to spend time, understand and even decide on the choice of destination.

The 800-odd visitors at the second edition of the fair who had come there with limited ideas were taken in by the diverse options that were available to them.

The diversity did not stop with courses, but also extended to the number of countries. Representatives from institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Holland, Dubai, Germany, Canada, Russia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Australia, France and other European countries, in addition to the consultants to universities in some of these countries were present to explain the uniqueness of the courses and how they would suit the particular student.

A. Ramya, Counsellor at Edwise, Overseas Education Consultants, who are consultants for educational institutions in nine countries including that of Ireland and Switzerland, said students chose destinations based on the specialty. While the general trend in Indian students going abroad for medicine was not as high as those going for other subjects, this time round the enquiries were good.

Ram Balachandar, professor, Faculty of Engineering, University of Windsor, Canada, said the country was becoming increasingly popular as an education destination because of the safety factor and cost-efficiency. Indian students preferred to do engineering and management courses in Canada. Another major reason, all universities being public or government-run, the fee was also nominal.

Another destination that was also growing as a favoured choice was The Netherlands. The Ministry of Education is promoting foreign admissions as part of its activities for the last two years. Here too, the 14 research universities and 41 universities of life sciences are government-run. The number of Indian students studying there has increased five-fold in two years, according to Sudha Sudeep, Education Promotion Officer of The Netherlands Business Support Office, Chennai.

To enable students get information about educational loans that are on offer for those studying abroad, State Bank of India had various options on hand. “Once the student gets the admit card and knows the fee structure, 85 per cent of the fee is approved as loan against a collateral. A maximum of Rs.20 lakh will be given. Women students get a waiver of 0.5 per cent in the interest rate,” M. Kavitha, customer relationship officer of the bank, said.

Seminars on ‘Education in Canada' and ‘Education in Holland' were well attended. They gave the students a perspective on not only studying, but also living abroad.

Radio City was the radio partner and Bloom, technology partner for the event

More overseas destinations beckon scores of higher study aspirants

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