THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The University of Kerala has received a record number of 1,042 applications from foreign students, mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq, this year for admission to various courses.
“The maximum number of applicants are from Afghanistan and Iraq, and in both cases the admission is sought mostly for PhD courses,” said Prof Sabu Joseph, director of Centre for Global Academics (CGA) at the university.
The university used to get the maximum number of applications from Iran in the previous years.
Authorities said the changes brought in by the Union government in the foreign student admission process owing to the Covid-19 challenges worked in favour of the university.
Till last year, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) was the first point of contact for foreign students seeking admission to Indian universities.
The council has now set up a web portal, through which students can directly select universities of their choice and apply for admission.
The final clearance for their admission, however, will be at the discretion of ICCR.
KU charges hefty fees from fgn pupilsSabu Joseph said, “Most candidates seeking admission to PhD courses are college teachers.
The university clears their application on the basis of their academic merit and Englishspeaking skills.
The other mandatory clearances are done by the ICCR, which in fact sponsors the studies of a large number of foreign students in Indian universities.” The ICCR had cleared applications of 105 students for admission to the university last year but only less than 25 joined owing to the pandemic.
Many students had sought permission to join the courses online but the university denied them permission.
“This year also, only those who take admission physically will be allowed to join the courses,” an official said.
The university charges hefty fees from foreign students and it is liable to put in place a monitoring mechanism on them while they are in the state.
Besides Iraq and Afghanistan, the applicants include those from the US, South Africa, Bangladesh, Male, Indonesia, Nepal, Syria, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ghana and Cambodia.
A total of 148 candidates have applied for PhD courses in around 25 subjects, which include management studies, political science, computer science, chemistry and sociology.
The largest number of applications are made for MBA courses.
More foreign students joining the university, ranked 23rd in the latest NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) ranking of higher education institutions in the country, will help it improve its score in similar rankings.