More Iranians, fewer Afghans head to PU

CHANDIGARH: Dental science, laws, and legal studies are

Panjab University

’s most popular professional courses with international students. But while the number of their Iranian students has shot up this year, the count of

Afghans

has fallen drastically.

In the past six years (2011 to 2016), medical students from various countries preferred to come to the PU’s Dr Harvansh Singh Judge Institute of Dental Sciences and Hospital for internship. In five years, more than 60% of the university’s students from the US, UK, Canada, and Australia have joined the law department, dental institute, and UILS. Most of the students from Iran, Afghan, Bhutan, and Ethiopia go for doctorate in languages and arts.

Panjab University dean international students Deepti Gupta blamed the decline in the number of Afghan students on their high failure rate. She said: “Last year, we organised special classes for the students from

Afghanistan

but it didn’t serve much purpose. This year, their own government picked some for English lessons (so that they understood the medium of instruction).”

About the patterns in foreign student traffic, she said couples from Iran were moving to India as students so that their children got school education here to prepare for higher studies in the west. “The students say that the cultures and rituals of Iran and India are similar by and large, which helps them adjust. But it doesn’t explain the drastic decline in enrolment from

Yemen

and Iraq this year,” she added.