Last Update: February 06, 2023, 19:27 IST
MoS Education said the Bureau of Immigration under the MHA maintains departure and arrival data of Indians, but there is no index to capture the category of students going abroad for higher education. (Representational Image)
At least 7.5 lakh students are expected to go to foreign institutions for higher studies in 2022 as compared to 4.4 lakh in 2021, the Lok Sabha was told. Regarding the proposal to set up an international university, MoS Education Subhash Sarkar said that the UGC has drafted regulations to facilitate setting up of campuses in India.
The number of students going abroad for higher studies is set to almost double in 2022 as compared to the previous year. At least 7.5 lakh students went to foreign institutions for higher education last year as compared to 4.4 lakh in 2021, the Education Ministry told the Lok Sabha on Monday.
In a written reply to a question, Minister of State (MoS) for Education Subhash Sarkar told LS that the purpose of Indians going abroad for higher education is entered manually based on their oral disclosure or type of visa of the destination country . Produced by them at the time of immigration clearance.
“The number of Indians who disclosed the purpose of their travel as study/education while going abroad in 2022 was 7.5 lakh. This figure was 4.4 lakh in 2021, 2.59 lakh in 2020, 5.86 lakh in 2019, 5.17 lakh in 2018 and 4.54 lakh in 2017.
He also said that while the Bureau of Immigration under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) maintains data on departure and arrival of Indians, “there is no index to capture the category of Indians going abroad for the purpose of higher education, unless not be their type of visa or verbal declaration”.
Further, the minister said that the amount spent by Indian students on foreign trips is not maintained by this department.
With regard to the second part of the question regarding the proposal to set up an international university in the country, the Minister said that the University Grants Commission (UGC) has drafted enabling rules to facilitate the setting up of campuses of foreign higher education institutions in India. Have done
The draft UGC (Establishment and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations, 2023 was placed in the public domain on January 5 to seek feedback. The last date for receiving comments on the draft rules is February 20.
While one reason for the higher number of students going abroad in 2022 could be that 2021 and 2020 were pandemic years with restrictions on foreign travel, Professor M Jagadesh Kumar, chairman of the UGC, said the figure could not be seen only in the Indian context. Should be known, because it was a global trend.
“The numbers are only going to increase. There were 200 million students in higher education institutions globally in 2014 and this number will double by 2030, of which a third are going to be Indian students. Meaning, there will be more than 100 million students in higher educational institutions in India. Currently it is 41 million. Even though a small percentage of students go abroad, this number will be large primarily because the number of students in the higher education system India growing,” said Professor Kumar.
Asked whether any foreign university has so far shown interest in setting up campuses in India under the new norms, Kumar said, “We are getting good response from many universities including the US and Europe.” The picture is positive.
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