The SEPC and e-Commerce will join hands to build a portal on education for emphasising the quality of education India could provide to the international students. This digital portal will promote the quality of pedagogy that India offers and all related content. SEPC will take all the necessary initiatives to implement it soon. The portal will pave the way for opportunities through which the educational institutions will gain through the visibility among overseas users of digital content, institutions, various courses and attracting foreign students according to Maneck Davar, Chairman of SEPC.
In a recent webinar on “India a Global Education Hub,” Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) addressed India’s potential as a central education hub for international students to bring a lasting change to the prevailing state of affairs in the education sector.
‘India’s potential to become a central education hub for international students post COVID-19’, ‘The impact of COVID-19 on international students’ inflow to India’, ‘Digital education as future of imparting education to international students,’ ‘Do Indian universities have the required infrastructure to go digital?’, ‘Would private universities like to invest in Digital Education related infrastructure to attract international students?’ are some aspects that are being already discussed.
Dr Abhay Sinha, Director General of SEPC, said, “India has an enormous potential to offer superior training to international students. The Government of India has announced initiatives like “Study in India”, which helped bring more international students to our country. Still, some hurdles have not been letting the potential be utilised effectively. The main challenge faced by interest in international education is COVID-19. The pandemic has affected the international movement of students and teachers across the world.”
As per the latest AISHE, tThe total number of foreign national students enrolled in India is 49,348. Country-wise and level-wise foreign students in responding Institutions are given in Table 16. The foreign students come from 168 different countries from all across the globe. Highest share of foreign students come from the neighboring countries of which Nepal contributes 28.1% of the total, followed by Afghanistan 9.1%, Bangladesh 4.6% and Bhutan 3.8%. The top 10 countries in terms of number of students come from also includes Sudan (3.6%), U.S. (3.3%), Nigeria (3.1%), Yemen (2.9%), Malaysia (2.7%), United Arab Emirates (2.7%).
