NEP 2020 will allow adoption of micro-level strategies by higher education institutions to attract global students

The Indian education system, rooted in the ancient learnings of the Vedas and Puranas, has come a long way from the old-school Gurukuls to the modern era of hi-tech academic institutions. While India's constitution granted the state predominantly the control of the country's educational apparatus, the passage of a constitutional amendment in 1976 introduced the national government's position in proposing school education policies and programmes, with the state still having some independence over programme execution.

The current education system in India is more academically oriented with a major focus on students’ grades than their holistic development. The Government of India recently revisited the current education policy and introduced some changes to it. The revised education policy is now known by the name of National Education Policy 2020 that comprises essentially of two parts – School Education and Higher Education Institutions (HEI).

The current education system in India is more academically oriented with a major focus on students’ grades than their holistic development.

This article essentially deals with the strategies that need to be adopted by Higher Education Institutions to attract global students post NEP 2020 and is based on the discussions with several Chancellors/  Vice Chancellors/ Faculty in charge of attracting global students, etc. of Institutions not only in India but also in foreign countries. Additionally, the author was a panellist in the international webinar conducted on October 9 and 10, 2020 on India: The Global Destination for Higher Education (Post NEP 2020).

The NEP 2020 provides that India should be promoted as a ‘Global Study Destination’ providing premium education at affordable costs and restore its role as a Viswa Guru. Currently, there are around 50,000 foreign national students studying in India who belong to various parts of the world such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, some African countries. The Government of India has announced plans to increase this number to 2 lakh in the short run.

The NEP 2020 provides that India should be promoted as a ‘Global Study Destination’ providing premium education at affordable costs and restore its role as a Viswa Guru.

This task of increasing the number of foreign students is fraught with a series of both macro and micro-level challenges. Some of these challenges are listed below.

Macro-level challenges include:

• India is considered as an unsafe place for women by a number of other countries with too many political riots taking place
• India is not known as an Educational Hub and also there is no push from the Government of India on the lines of Destination India (Make in India) – Study in India campaign.
• With a huge population, India faces a lack of job opportunities in comparison to developed nations like the USA or UK. In the addition to that, the salary packages offered are also not comparable
• Many of the Higher Education Institutes are yet not globally accredited. And, out of the ones that are accredited, many do not even fall in the category of Top 200 institutions in terms of the global ranking
• The I-Sat exam conducted by the Government of India for foreign students attracted only 3500 candidates. This implies perhaps a lacuna in the marketing of India as an Education Hub

Micro-level challenges include:

• Infrastructural issues
• Lack of proper information and assistance to foreign national students at the time of admissions. Typically, when an Indian student travels abroad for higher education, they are handhold by a group of students who help them settle in the campus starting from picking up the student from the airport till the time they become familiar and adapt the new environment
• Most of the Indian HEIs suffers the low budget problems as a result to which there is also an absence of global faculty who bring students’ the global exposure

Given these challenges, the issue is what needs to be done in order to attract foreign students in India?

In order to attract foreign students to the Indian Campus, HEIs will have to adopt certain micro-level strategies such as

• Accreditation, especially global accreditation is important such as AASCB, AMBA, etc. Detailed discussions with several foreign faculties, Vice-Chancellors and Chancellors indicated that it is imperative that universities must be globally accredited in order to be globally accepted
• Get faculties from abroad to conduct classes in India.  This helps in students getting a globalised view. The major deterrent in this strategy is the high cost of attracting faculties. Typically, it involves a business class ticket, five-star accommodation, etc. Many HEIs indicated that the cost is highly prohibitive.  Perhaps a cluster approach or a consortium approach wherein two or three HEIs can get together and share the costs involved
• Perhaps get a few chairs instituted by global leaders such as the Bill Gates Chair or the Pichay Chair, etc.
• There is a need for high-quality infrastructure- measured in terms of hostel facilities, quality of food, etc. There is also a need to have good quality administrative support which would help students in getting visas, other travel documents, etc.
• Twinning programmes wherein the student does a semester or two in India and the balance in the target country, if possible.
• Need to project the HEI as a place of high-quality educational campus and also project India as a cultural and tourist place on the lines of Medical Tourism and other such destinations
• Additionally, it might be useful to have one person working from home in a targeted country who would visit schools in the targeted country and market the HEI. This person would also conduct roadshows, wherever needed
• A well-prepared audio-video and a website is a must. This would be a good marketing tool
• Promote India as a safe country for women
• It is important that HEIs initially target developing countries rather than developed countries.
• For industrialisation of India, there is a lot of marketing being done – Make in India campaign, Destination Maharashtra, etc. In all these campaigns it might be better if the consortium of HEI presents themselves as a single unit in these countries

About the author:

Dr R Gopal is Director, Head of the Department and the former Dean of DY Patil Deemed to be University School of Management and also Member of the Board of Management, Ajeenkya DY Patil University.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha