Indian universities have embarked on a recruitment drive to attract African students into their institutions.
The Indian universities, through expos, with promises of affordable fees and high educational standards compared to those in Europe and America, are trying to attract African students, Nitesh Mahajan, Assistant Director of international admissions, Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Phagwara, Punjab, has told IANS.
Mahajan, who was in the Ghanaian capital Accra, along with other representatives of Indian universities at this year's Indian Education Expo with over 100 Indian universities, said, African students enjoy the freedom that they expect in any institution outside their country and said: "Indian universities provide much more for the African students in addition to the fact that the fees are affordable."
He said, Indian higher institutions face a stringent quality assurance mechanism from the statutory bodies including the University Grant Commission (UGC) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) as well as the various professional councils.
Organisers of the Expo, the second to be held in Accra said, the studies in India has a personal approach through the Gurukul system where a teacher interacts on one-on-one basis with students in order to help them find solutions to difficulties they faced.
"In addition, India has a large number of international students coming from all parts of the world to pursue their desired careers in Indian institutions. India also make the efforts to help foreign nationals feel at home and help them to integrate with the rest of the students community," the organisers said.
"India's higher education is third largest in the world, after China and the US," the organisers said, adding: "The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) has been globally acclaimed for their student of undergraduate education in engineering."
What has turned India into a hub for international higher education is the fact that the universities also provide opportunities for continuing education to those who missed completing school education and higher education.
The organisers said, there about 1.4 million students enrolled at secondary and higher secondary education through open and distance learning.
"At the higher education level, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) co-ordinates distance learning and has a cumulative enrolment of about 1.5 million, serviced through 53 regional centres and 1.400 study centres with 25,000 councils," the organisers said.
"The Distance Education Council (DEC), and authority of the IGNOU is co-ordinating 13 state open universities and 119 institutions of correspondence courses in conventional universities."
Another feature of Indian education is the fact that, the courses as well as professionals trained in Indian educational institutions are recognised the world over with over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies regularly participate in campus placements in Indian institutions.
(Francis Kokutse can be contacted at fkokutse@gmail.com)
--IANS
francis/pgh/
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