Institutes offer scholarships to attract international students – Times of India

The initiative will encourage the international students and deal with the limited scholarship offered by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) that is offered to international students seeking admission at Indian institutes.

BHU has announced a scholarship under which the foreign students will receive Rs6000 per month. The scholarship will be managed by the IoE funds allocated to the university.
Enrolment of foreign students in an institute is one of the major parameters in any international ranking. Several institutes, including the BHU, hopes that innovative scholarship will encourage more students to their campus.

It will also help international students since very few students manage to get ICCR scholarships. BHU vice chancellor Sudhir K Jain told the Education Times, “Around 95% of international students at BHU do not have a scholarship and are self-financing the education. The scholarship of Rs 72000 per year will help them and attract more students.”

BHU gets students largely in the technical courses and the scholarship will have students enrolling in the conventional course. “We have students from South Asian countries such as Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan”, he says. Most overseas students enrol in courses in Agricultural Sciences, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Commerce and Arts and Social Sciences.

Narrow ICCR route

Chocko Valliappa, vice chairman, Sona College of Technology, Salem, says the capability of private institutes offering quality education is often doubted from an admission perspective in the absence of scholarships. “There are limited ICCR scholarship funds which are not sufficient, given the huge influx of overseas students,” says Valliappa.

“Solving the same gap, management of Sona Group offers scholarships to 2-3 lakh international students selected on the merit basis,” says Valliappa, underlining how the initiative has helped more than 3000 overseas students graduate from its campuses.

Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) has several students from Afganisation and Africa coming for education, but the institute does not have any specific scholarships for international students. Most students seeking admission in UG, PG and PhD courses opt for ICCR scholarships. “For the 2021-22 academic calendar, the largest number of applications were received from Afghanistan and these were through the ICCR route or the course was self-financed. At present approximately 160 foreign students are studying in JMI, added the spokesperson.

Pointers of popularity

Reflecting on the reason to study in India, Valliappa said that international students from the SAARC countries prefer to study in India, for two reasons-proximity to India and quality of education.