Bhubaneswar: Odisha emerged as one of the top 10 states in the country receiving the highest number of international students, according to the recently released Niti Aayog’s ‘Internationalisation of Higher Education in India’ report.The eastern state currently has 2,362 international students pursuing UG, PG and PhD courses in different colleges and universities, both public and private. The country’s premier policy think tank derived the data from the ministry of education’s All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) reports from 2012 to 2022. While Karnataka bags the top spot with 5,954 foreign students, Odisha is at the ninth spot in the top 10 list. Bhubaneswar, which has the highest number of institutes of higher learning and research, gets the maximum number of such students.
Despite the presence of top higher educational institutes (HEIs) in places like Kolkata and Hyderabad, Odisha got more international students compared to states like West Bengal and Telangana. The Niti Aayog report said that states like Odisha and Haryana have emerged as new and important destinations, pointing to the growing role of state-level higher education policies and institutional development in attracting international students. Back in 2012-13, only 23 foreign students studied in the state.The maximum enrolment by international students is for UG (2,221) courses, BTech in particular. Educationists attribute the quality of education and research, affordability and zero tolerance to racism on campuses as the three prime reasons behind the rising popularity of Odisha among students from other countries.Vice-chancellor of Berhampur University Geetanjali Dash said the standard of higher education and research in Odisha is way better than in many other states, despite its human resources crisis. “The govt is taking several steps to improve the state’s higher education visibility on national and international platforms, be it opening more centres of excellence on campuses or investing in skill development and innovation,” she said.A senior official of the higher education department said it is currently operating a dedicated international student facilitation cell for redress of problems they face across both public and private universities and national institutes in the state, for their smooth academic experience. As far as general universities are concerned, the state is now constructing special hostels on campuses for international students.
