UGC- University Grants Commission has asked colleges, universities, and other higher educational institutions to create 25% of surplus seats, particularly for international students. The commission instructed Indian (Higher Educational Institutions) HEIs to do this to make India a preference for higher education in the eyes of international students.

Via the National Education Policy (NEP 2020), a primary focus in higher education is to perform and work towards the internationalistion of higher education in India. Keeping National Education Policy 2020 in mind, UGC has provided recent amendments and new policies to build an inflow of international students to Indian Higher Educational Institutions.

The University Grants Commission issued guidelines asking all Higher Educational Institutions to add 25% of seats in addition to their total number of seats authorized for UG and PG programmes. These seats would only be created for international students.

UGC Guidelines

According to the guidelines issued, institutions must work towards adding 25% of additional seats in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, especially for international students.

UGC stated that the HEIs must make a conscious decision and try to ensure this 25% of seats are distributed across all varsity departments.

In the context of UGC policies, international students would refer to a student who has a foreign passport. These seats will not be open for international students who have come through exchange programmes or via an MoU (memorandum of understanding) signed between an Indian and International university or government.

If there are empty seats after students have been enrolled, these seats are not to be given to other categories of students. The seats must be created in observance of the current rules and only after being approved by the regulatory bodies of the institution concerned.

In the case of Ph.D. seats, UGC said that supernumerary seats should be created based on the regulations stated by the commission. All Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) have also been instructed to build an officer for international students where all details about such students will be maintained.

News Source: Times Now