With the objective of enhancing interaction not just within the academia but also to engage with the community at large, the US-India Educational Foundation (USIEF), will be setting up Nehru Chairs in US Universities. The USIEF promotes mutual understanding between the nationals of India and the US through the educational exchange of outstanding scholars, professionals and students.
IIT Kharagpur and the USIEF organised a two-day joint workshop for universities in Eastern India themed – ‘Igniting Interest to Study in India: Best Practices to Attract Foreign Students on Your Campus’. The workshop brought together eastern India’s top universities to explore best practices which can ignite the interest of foreign students to study in India.
The USIEF has the mandate to hold outreach workshops to promote both the inbound and outbound flow of students between the two countries.
“Recently we have seen a drop of about 15 per cent in the inbound students to India from the US. We are trying to reach out to universities in India and bridge this gap,” said Diya Dutt, Deputy Director, of USIEF said. They are also looking into the scope of improvement in the areas of cutting-edge research and teaching infrastructure and accommodation in which Indian universities can get an edge by meeting the globally accepted standards.
USIEF has been awarding Fulbright, Fulbright-Nehru, and other prestigious grants and scholarships in almost every academic discipline.
IIT Kharagpur, which is extensively promoting its international outreach to bring in more foreign students for degree and non-degree programmes, has already set up a strong international relations mechanism to attract more number of students, reports the Outlook.
Talking about the initiative, Baidurya Bhattacharya, Dean International Relations of IIT Kharagpur, said “Eastern India with its socio-cultural diversity, has tremendous potential of becoming a preferred destination for foreign students not just in India but the entire South Asian region. And the best part is, the universities here have been offering quality, affordable higher education, which these foreign students seek.”
“We have launched various scholarship programmes funded by the Institute and alumni especially for SAARC, ASEAN and African students which has increased our international student enrolment significantly,” said Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Associate Dean International Relations, IIT Kharagpur.
Among the participants were XLRI Jamshedpur, West Bengal State University, Presidency University, Jadavpur University and IISER Kalyani.
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