Odisha Universities record 124 per cent rise in foreign student enrolment

BHUBANESWAR: Enrolment of foreign students in universities of Odisha recorded nearly 125 per cent increase in 2019-20 academic year, reveals the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) - 2019-20 released by the Ministry of Education on Thursday. 

As per the report, as many as 1,159 foreign students enrolled in different higher education institutions across the State in 2019-20 - a 124 per cent increase over previous year’s enrolment of 516.

With this the State has inched closure to the foreign student enrolment figure of neighbouring West Bengal which stood at 1,211 the same year.

While Karnataka registered the highest enrolment of 10,231 students from abroad, Andhra Pradesh recorded 2,094 students from outside India.

Enrolment of foreign students in neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand remained 108 and 47 respectively. 

Of the total foreign students enrolled in different private and public universities of the State, 780 are male and 379 female.

A total of 943 foreign students including 309 female joined under graduate courses while 58 foreign students, 34 male and 24 female students are pursuing PhD in the State’s universities. 

There was no enrolment in MPhil courses while the number of students opting for post graduate courses stood at 158 which include 112 male and 46 female students. 

The survey report suggested that the total number of foreign national students enrolled in India in 2019-20 was 49,348, around 2,000 more than 2018-19 academic year.

While students from 168 countries enrolled in the university, Nepal contributed 28.1 per cent of the total followed by Afghanistan at 9.1 per cent, Bangladesh at 4.6 per cent and Bhutan 3.8 per cent. 

Private universities in the State have enrolled the maximum number of foreign students.  Sources in the Higher Education department said that the figure may have fluctuated as enrolment of students from outside India in the State has been hugely impacted by the outbreak of Covid-19.