ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL
of the project. The participating institutions are connected, through optical fibre links, to a Data Centre at TCIL Bhawan, New Delhi, and then to the African satellite hub earth station in Dakar, Senegal. The project has two main components: Tele-Education Services and Tele-Medicine Services.
Under the project, an integrated teleeducation delivery system software has been provided to bring virtual remote classrooms in a multi-studio and multi-class environment with the seamless two-way interaction between teachers and students through collaborative tools. Tele-education teaching centres have been set up in five Indian Universities: Amity University, Indira Gandhi National Open University, BITS Pilani, University of Delhi, and the University of Madras. There are a total of 47 Learning Centres( LC) which have already been set up and involve 5 Regional University Centres in Africa, namely, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; Makerere University, Uganda; Yaounde University, Cameroon; Alexandria Faculty of Commerce, Egypt; and Chancellor College, Malawi.
Study in India
Albert Einstein once said, " we owe a lot to the Indians who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made." No doubt, India has been a major station of learning for thousands of years.
India is the second largest source of internationally mobile students around the world. According to data compiled by UNESCO, nearly 234,000 Indian students were enrolled in universities and colleges abroad in 2015. In contrast, Indian universities and colleges hosted only 39,000 degreeseeking international students.
The Government of India is, thus, keen on enhancing the attractiveness of India as a destination for international students. At the same time, some Indian institutions are keen on making use of the 15 percent additional seats available to them for enrolling foreign students. This will also help in enhancing the global reputation and rankings of some institutions.
The Study in India programme will furnish a one-stop solution through the establishment of a centralised portal. The website will not only provide information on the latest offerings in the Indian education sector, but also ease the process of admissions for foreign students and help them make informed selections about where to study based on individual abilities and career goals.
The government is cognisant of the fact that affordability will go a long way in enticing international students. As Prakash Javadekar, the current Human Resource Development Minister, GoI, stated at the time of launching‘ Study in India’,“ India can become a hub of affordable education for foreign students.” To that end, the Indian government ' s ' Study in India ' initiative stipulates that 55 percent of the total of 15,000 seats on offer at top universities and colleges in the country will be supported by merit-based fee-waivers at differential rates to students from Asia and Africa.
This arrangement will involve the admission of foreign students from 30 countries— with emphasis on South Asia, South East Asia, West Asia and Africa— to study in 160 quality higher educational institutions of India identified as per NIRF ranks and NAAC grades. The objective of this inspiring structure is to increase the number of foreign students in India to 2 lakhs by 2023.
The Study in India programme will furnish a one-stop solution through the establishment of a centralised portal. The website will not only provide information on the latest offerings in the Indian education sector, but also ease the process of admissions for foreign students and help them make informed selections about where to study based on individual abilities and career goals. It is also aimed at easing of visa requirements for international students. This programme is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
While Indian soft power through the presence of its students in some of the renowned universities across the world is worthwhile in all sorts of ways, the manifestation of a large number of international students in India will also serve to substantially boost the soft power of India. •
* The author is Business Editor at Diplomatist magazine.
2018 • Africa Day Special • 55