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EDUCATION: FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES
New Brain Rush
The low cost of higher education and the use of English
as a medium in Germany and France are attracting a growing number of Indian
students
By Himanshi Dhawan
The Indian summer
has a similar effect on birds and people. They migrate to greener pastures.
And if statistics are anything to go by, this year will see more than
just a feathery flock leave. In search of global careers and international
value addition to their education, an increasing number of Indian students
are going abroad for higher studies.
 The
US remains the most preferred destination for students from India. From
37,482 in 1998, the number of Indian students going to the US increased
to 42,337 last year. But European nations and Australia are fast catching
up. Almost 16 per cent of the 31,250 foreign students in the UK are Indians.
And in the past four years, the number of Indian students going to Australia
has trebled.
Now other European countries are following in
their footsteps. Breaking the language barrier that had till now kept
foreign students away, countries like Germany and France are trying to
attract students from India. Germany, which started courses in English
only in 1997 and began promotional efforts in India in 1999, managed to
recruit 846 last year while France fared better with 1,100 admissions.
Language is no longer an impediment. "It
is not necessary to know French, though living in France would be easier
if you have a working knowledge of the language," says Samy Bouakaze,
linguistic and education attache in the French Embassy. Similarly, it
is not necessary for students in Germany to be fluent in German.
Indeed, India is a market that most countries
cannot afford to ignore. According to a study conducted in 2000, three-fourth
of the foreign students in the US receive financial support from outside
the US, contributing close to $12.3 billion (Rs 51,800 crore) to the US
economy. With competition hotting up, countries find it necessary to market
their educational institutions. Education fairs organised by the British
Council in November 2000 in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune
drew 60 institutions and over 10,000 visitors. France and Germany also
received good responses in Delhi, Mumbai and Pune in 2000. Their USP:
subsidised tuition fees. For instance, the French government pays up to
Rs 2.5 lakh while the student pays only about Rs 10,000 in annual tuition
fees in state-run institutions. In Germany, it's even better: the government
pays the entire tuition fees and the student only has to bear his living
expenses.
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MARKETING LESSONS: Education
fairs draw students from across the country |
That is a tremendous advantage because cost is
an important deciding factor. In fact, it was the high cost of college
education in the US that led to the emergence of Australia as a second
option for many Indian students in the 1990s (see chart). For instance,
Mumbai student Dheemal Thakker, 17, wanted to study in the US. But she
finally opted for Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. "The
cost factor won," says Thakker.
Some well-known academic centres are the Ceram
Sophia Antipolis for management and the Sorbonne University for economics
in France and the Heidelberg University for medicine, the Aachen Technical
University for mechanical engineering and the Free University for humanities
in Germany.
But does a degree from France or Germany carry
as much weight as one from a US university? Educationists feel that course
content and quality of work gain precedence over the university. "Application-oriented
learning and project work is far more important in a management programme,''
says K. Neelkanthan, principal of the Mumbai-based SIES College. Ja, or
is it OUI, to that.
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