New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked higher education institutions to create up to 25 per cent supernumerary seats for international students in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
Supernumerary seats are those over and above the total enrollment in a programme. If a programme typically admits 100 students, 25 additional seats will have to be kept for international pupils, according to the UGC guidelines released Thursday.
The UGC has further asked institutions to consider entry-level qualifications accepted in India, for the purpose of admission into the programmes.
The commission has also sought public feedback on the guidelines and has invited comments till 5 September.
“Indian institutions may admit international students based on the equivalence of entry qualification held by them. The equivalence is to be determined by the UGC or any other body recognised by UGC for such purpose or the concerned regulatory bodies of the country,” the guidelines read.
Other regulatory bodies in India are the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Pharmacy Council and Architecture Council, among others.
The UGC guidelines added that the additional seats for international students will not include those “under exchange programmes or/and through Memorandum of Understanding between institutions or between Government of India and other countries”.
“Depending on the availability of infrastructure and qualified faculty, efforts should be made to distribute these 25 per cent seats among all departments, schools, centres or any other academic unit of the higher educational institution, wherever possible,” it adds.
‘Office for International Students’
The UGC guidelines define foreign students as those pupils who possess an international passport.
“A seat remaining unfilled in the supernumerary category shall not be allocated to anyone other than an international student,” the guidelines state.
All institutions have also been asked to have an ‘Office for International Students’ and maintain their year-wise details, including the country, programme/subject as well as duration of their courses on the academy’s website.
All details regarding the number of seats available for international students in each programme, fee prescribed for the same, admission processes, eligibility conditions etc should also be made available on the websites.
The Indian government has been making concerted efforts to attract more foreign students. This includes facilitating their entry through the Study in India scheme that eases the admission process by providing all information through a single window operation.
However, the number of international students coming to India has not significantly increased in the last few years. According to data from the Ministry of External affairs, a total of 49, 348 students enrolled in Indian universities in the 2019-20 academic session, up only from 45,425 in the 2015-16 academic session.
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