Over 500 Syrian Students to Study in India Under Government’s New Scheme

Over 500 students from Syria will be offered admission in government and private institutes of the country under the Study in India scheme.The government launched the Study in India scheme in April 2017.

The scheme will provide students of the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, and Southeast Asia with an opportunity to study in top institutions in India. These students will be offered admission in prestigious institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), Delhi University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and others.

The Higher Education Minister of Syria met HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar in April 2018 to increase the number of Syrian students in India. The government aims at having more than 2 lakh international students by 2023 studying in India. There are 45,000 international students in the country currently.

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Meanwhile, SS Mantha, Former Chairman of the AICTE said that this is one of the greatest initiatives of the government and one of the main reason for the students keen to study in India is due to distress and tense situation in their own countries. However, he suggested that the screening of the students should be done on the basis of language and subject test.

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One of the HRD ministry officials also said that a huge number of applicants under the scheme are from Syria even though 2018-19 is the zero year. As per the All India Survey on Higher Education ( for the 2016-17 year), over 2,275 students from Nepal followed by 751 students from Ethiopia, 635 students from Bangladesh and 94 students from Syria are studying in Indian institutions. The HRD ministry has increased the number of seats to 22,000 for the 2019-20 academic year.