International Conclave on “India: The Global Destination for Higher Education" by IIT Kharagpur

Every year, around 2.5 lakh students from India go to pursue higher education in foreign shores leading to an outflow of $16 billion. While Indian institutes and colleges are able to attract only 42,000 students from other countries, United States has the strength of 10.5 lakh foreign students. United Kingdom's (UK) intake is nearly four lakh students from worldwide with China taking in around five lakh students. Also, countries like Australia and France have about three lakh international students each.

To attract talent from abroad, India needs to reinvent itself as a study destination for foreign students as this would result in bringing in approximately $20 billion to the country’s cash-strapped institutes. Also, Indian universities and colleges would have to promote their act and improve their infrastructure which would ultimately benefit their own students too.

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For India to shape up an international student focus, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur Alumni Foundation in association with Pan IIT Alumni India will be organising an International Conclave on “India: The Global Destination for Higher Education” at Hotel Ashok, New Delhi. It will be held on June 10, 2017.

Prakash Javadekar will be the chief guest and Mahendra Nath Pandey, the state minister will be the guest of honour of the event. The organisers have invited Nirmala Sitharaman, the Minister of Commerce and Industry as the chief guest for the valedictory session but her consent is still awaited. Directors of IITS, IIMS, top universities, policy makers and also representatives from some international universities will be participating in the discussion.

The international conclave aims to create an atmosphere of excellence and quality in the top universities and colleges of higher learning in India to draw attention of the best students worldwide and therefore shaping India to become a global destination for higher learning once again. One of the major purposes of this meet is to bring MHRD and educational institutions together for achieving this goal.

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Four sessions are planned for the conclave. The first session throws light on various opportunities and challenges faced by government institutes. The second session emphasises on the contribution of private sector institutes of the country and future plans for the same. The third will focus on experiences of global institutions – the various possibilities of joint programs exchanging students and faculties and the last session to highlight the national policy and initiatives to be taken for Indian varsities.

This discussion-oriented conclave intends to come up with the detailed roadmap and action plan to be followed by the top 10 percent institutes for attracting foreign students. The organisers expressed that an extensive collective outreach programme will have to be launched to achieve this goal.