New Delhi: As Indians continue to flock to universities in Germany in recent years, Philipp Ackermann, the German Ambassador to India, has warned prospective students to ‘not fully trust’ agents as Berlin’s missions here have on average rejected roughly 25 percent of student visa applications.
In an exclusive interaction with ThePrint newsroom Monday, Ackermann highlighted that there are currently 60,000 Indian students in the European country—the largest number of foreign students present in Germany are Indians.
“Out of the 60,000 Indian students in Germany, the overwhelming majority are going to very good schools. There is a small group of people who, I think, listens carefully to their agents,” said Ackermann. “It is clear that private universities, some of them being non-German, have a contract with these agents. They (the agents) get money for recruiting (students).”
The German envoy added: “My appeal to every Indian student who wants to consider going to Germany is: don’t trust your agents too much because the agents have their own agenda. They want to make money, and if they propose a university for EUR 10,000, it is very beneficial for them. You should not forget that when you go to a public university in Germany, it is for free.”
Ackermann pointed out that some of the private universities are not at the same level as state-run universities, and in some cases, do not offer German degrees, but degrees from other countries.
This has led to disappointment in some cases for Indian students, because it is as if they have been drawn into a scam that does not offer the quality of education promised.
Furthermore, the agents often try to ‘tune’ the applications in a certain way to make the applicants seem more genuine—which has also led to the fairly high visa rejection rates within the German missions, pointed out Ackermann.
The rush for foreign education among Indian students in recent years has seen the US and Canada emerge as the primary beneficiaries. The UK and Australia are other destinations that are home to a large number of Indian students.
However, US President Donald Trump has started cracking down on a number of visa categories, with American missions revoking up to 6,000 student visas recently, for a number of reasons, including criminal charges and overstays.
The US has also started cracking down on skilled labour migration, imposing a $100,000 fee for H1-B visas, further denting the prospects of Indians looking for work abroad.
Ackermann, however, has made it clear that Germany’s stable and liberal migration system allows a pathway for skilled Indian workers to fill up a number of vacancies in German firms.
“You have to make people understand. That there are two ways of migration. One is fair and legal, and one is not fair and legal,” said Ackermann. “If there’s success in getting that into German minds, I think it would be a balanced situation,” said Ackermann.
For Indian students moving to Germany, they are given 18 months to find a job after their studies. Ackermann, welcomed Indians looking to move, pointing out that the influx of migrants would aid in paying for the robust German social welfare system.
“I would say that Germany, with its liberal immigration and a long tradition of absorbing foreigners, even foreigners from non-European cultural environments, is in a relatively good place,” said the German envoy.
He added: “It is true in Germany that a lot of people who are from other countries live on social welfare. Over a million Ukrainians felling Ukraine. We have taken a million Syrians in 2015. You see that out of these million Syrians, who came in 2015 or 2016, a great percentage of men are working by now. They are integrating into the German labour market, that is a good sign.”
(Edited by Shashank Kishan)
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