Like IITs, Now Other Universities to Have Supernumerary Seats for Foreign Students

The University Grants Commission (UGC) in its 560th meeting held on August 18, approved the guidelines for the admission and supernumerary seats for international students willing to pursue undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in India. Other than the total sanctioned enrollment for UG and PG programmes, HEIs might create up to 25 per cent supernumerary seats for international students.

It must be noted that as many as 10 per cent of the seats are reserved for foreign nationals across IITs. These seats are supernumerary in number, implying that they are in addition to the existing seats. As per a report in Economic Times, through the guideline approved by UGC for addition of supernumerary seats across colleges in India, international students will be enrolled in a transparent admission process and they will not have to follow the entrance procedure used for admissions in India.

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The decision on these seats must be made by the relevant higher educational institutions in accordance with specific regulations issued by regulatory bodies, taking into account infrastructure, faculty, and other requirements. Efforts would be made to distribute these 25 per cent seats across all departments, schools, and centres of the higher education institution, depending on the availability of infrastructure and qualified faculty.

Prof M Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman of UGC said, “Internationalisation of higher education is an essential aspect of the National Education Policy 2020 and it helps in integrating the international and intercultural dimensions in higher education.” The chairman claims that the primary goal of these regulations is to provide an easy admission process for international students to higher educational institutions in India and create an environment that attracts students from abroad.

It is being said that the guidelines will be made public in a few days for stakeholder feedback, and HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) will be able to admit international students based on the equivalence of their entry qualifications. The University Grants Commission (UGC) or any other body recognised by UGC for such purposes, will be determining the equivalence.

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