Universities and higher education institutions across the country will now be allowed to create 25 per cent additional seats for foreign students in their undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) programmes, while the students will not be required to go through the admission process. According to the UGC plans to take the above steps to increase the number of international students in India. 

Officials said the decision in this regard was taken at the University Grants Commission (UGC) meeting last month on internationalization of UG and PG programs in India. The supernumerary seats will be made more than the total sanctioned strength and the decision regarding these seats will be taken by the respective Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) considering the infrastructure, faculty and other requirements as per the specific guidelines and regulations issued by the regulatory bodies . 

UGC Chairman Professor M Jagadesh Kumar informed that Indian higher education institutions can admit international students on the basis of equality of qualifications held by them. The equivalence criteria for degree qualification is to be determined by the UGC or the respective regulatory bodies recognized by the UGC. Institutions of Higher Education (HEI) can create an additional 25% seats for international students in addition to their total accepted enrollment for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

The UGC chief said that the decision regarding 25 per cent additional seats has to be taken by the higher educational institutions concerned as per the specific guidelines/regulations issued by the regulatory bodies keeping in view the infrastructure, faculty and other requirements. Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) will also be allowed to admit international students using a transparent admission process as is done by foreign universities and these students will not have to go through the other admission process used for admission in India . 

An official explained that the additional seats in professional and technical institutions would be governed by the respective statutory bodies. All the details regarding the number of seats available for international students in each programme, fee prescribed for the same, admission procedure, eligibility conditions etc. will be made available on the website of the higher educational institutions. The seats will be exclusively for international students in both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Let us tell you that according to the data of the Ministry of External Affairs, a total of 23,439 foreign students came to India in 2021. However, the number was higher in the years before the pandemic. In 2019, more than 75,000 international students came to India for higher education.