Destination India

Pooja Jain / May 26, 2004, 14:44 IST

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Educational Consultants India Ltd is doing pioneering work in promoting the country as an educational hub for international students.

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">It''s not merely Indian students who are going abroad to pursue higher education. At present, students from nearly 100 countries are pursuing Under Graduate (UG), Post Graduate (PG) and research programmes in India as well. Education Times speaks to A K Motwani, director (technical) and chief vigilance officer of Educational Consultants India Ltd (Ed.CIL), on how India is making its presence felt in the global education market. About Ed.CIL The Ed.CIL is a public-sector enterprise under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), which undertakes a wide variety of activities in the education and the HRD sector.It''s the nodal agency for placement of international students in both the public and private institutions of India. In addition, it undertakes projects in other social sectors like health, agriculture and rural development and provides technical assistance in various spheres of activities. For instance, the Ed.CIL conceptualised the establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati and the Indian Institute of Management, Indore, among others. Advantage India We offer quality education. The fee structure and cost of living in India is reasonable than other countries. A majority of foreign students from Asia and Africa come to India due to similar cultural identities. Going global Our institutions can become truly global if we have foreign students , as it will foster mutual exchange of ideas and provide an insight into various cultures, which is vital for grooming global managers. The success of ''Pravasi Bhartiya Divas'' has created awareness about our educational system too. On DASA DASA stands for ''Direct Admission of Students Abroad'' scheme wherein 15 per cent seats are reserved for foreign nationals in premier technical institutions. Under this scheme, foreign students can get admission to UG engineering programmes offered by the 17 National Institutes of Technology, formerlyregional engineering colleges and centrally-funded institutions like the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad; Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior and National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi, to mention a few. All hotel management institutes and agricultural universities too come under the DASA scheme. Almost 50 per cent fee is waived for students from SAARC countries. Recognition of Indian degrees Indian degrees are recognised in most of the countries. We take utmost care to find out the recognition requirements of a country, before placing a foreign student in an Indian institution. In case of a problem, we initiate the necessary talks with the government of that country. Popularising India We propose to organise educational fairs in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia in 2005, to spread awareness about educational opportunities in India. Involving DU and JNU When both the Delhi University (DU) and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have the potential to attract foreign students, it is surprising that seats are lying vacant in these institutions. We have recently initiated talks with the UGC for this. Future plans We want to make our presence felt more strongly, especially in Asian and African countries, so that foreign candidates are placed solely through Ed. CIL in India, like the United States Educational Foundation in India and the British Council do for the US and the UK respectively. Moreover, I will be proposing soon the setting up of a ''24X7 educational helpline'' for the students, as well as Ed.CIL centres all over the country.</div> </div>

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