The HRD Ministry has set up a committee to form guidelines and suggest measures to ensure that more students study in India and there is a smooth transition for students returning from abroad due to COVID-19 situation, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' announced on Friday.
The committee headed by chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) is also supposed to recommend a mechanism to increase the intake in well-performing universities.
According to officials, mechanisms will be explored for starting multi-disciplinary and innovative programs, twinning and joint degree programs, cross-country designing of centres, facilitating online lectures by eminent faculty abroad, linkage between academia and industry, facilitate joint degree ventures and lateral entry to Indian higher education institutions.
The committee will present its report within 15 days.
"Due to the current COVID-19 situation, many students who wanted to pursue studies abroad have decided to stay back and pursue the studies in India. There are also rising number of Indian students returning to India with concern about completion of their studies," Nishank said at a session on "Stay in India and Study in India".
"We should make all efforts to look into the needs of both these categories of students. Initiatives needed to be taken to retain them by providing appropriate opportunities of education in premier institutions in India as well as concerns of students returning from abroad need to be addressed by supporting them to complete their programme here in India," he added.
The minister said that last year around 7.5 lakh students travelled abroad to pursue their studies and because of this valuable foreign exchange moved out of India as well as many bright students moved abroad.
"We should make all efforts to help bright students to pursue their education in India. Also, as per this government's manifesto we have to increase seat capacity by 50 per cent in all premier institutions by year 2024 and also Institutes of Eminence should be increased to 50 by 2024," he added.
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