Madras univ to double intake of foreign students

Madras univ to double intake of foreign students

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:03.03.2021 

Post Covid-19, University of Madras is planning to admit double the number of foreign students through collaboration with foreign universities and its alumni.

At present, the university has 22 students from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Africa and other countries. Due to the pandemic, the university had only seven new foreign students in 2020-21.

The university plans to start admission process in March and complete it before June 15.

“Courses like music, Bharatanatyam, psychology, sociology, public administration, MBA and MCom are popular among the foreign students. We are targeting to double the strength of foreign students in postgraduate and research programmes,” said vice-chancellor S Gowri.

The university has a foreign students’ hostel at Taramani that can house more than 100 occupants.

“We have identified areas and faculty members to collaborate with foreign universities. We are planning to sign MoUs for student and faculty exchange programmes. Our university alumni can help in bringing more students,” said professor Rita John, director of University of Madras’s International Centre.

The university will focus on south east Asian countries and African nations for the next academic year.

A majority of foreign students used to come through Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

“To have more foreign students, the ICCR decided to allow the students to directly contact the universities for admission,” said K Mohamed Ibrahim Khaleel, regional director of ICCR, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Tamil Nadu and Puducherry used to attract more than 200 students every year through ICCR that will provide scholarships to the foreign students.

“Due to Covid-19 pandemic, we had almost no admissions during last year. ICCR is planning to attract more foreign students. We have asked the universities to share details of popular courses, infrastructure, NIRF ranking with us. We will share it on our website,” he said.

In a bid to attract more students, Indian universities were asked to open applications for foreign students from March 15 for the next academic year, he said.

REACHING OUT: University of Madras could admit only seven foreign students last year