In its efforts to showcase India as a global study hub and the strength of its manifold HEIs, AICTE has launched the EducationINdia portal (educationindia.gov.in). The portal is expected to boost international student intake as it makes information about Indian institutes available in one place.

The portal has developed the basic profile of the institutes that admit international students by importing data from the AISHE (All India Survey on Higher Education) portal.

“In the first phase, registration is open for institutions which can be found as per AISHE data. Login will be the AISHE code and password provided by the EducationINdia team at the email id of the HEI registered with AISHE. In the second phase, registration will be open to all those institutions keen to register and are otherwise eligible to admit foreign students. Registration of such institutes will be confirmed after a verification process. Once the Indian HEIs update their data, the portal will be opened to international students in another seven to 10 days to search the institution and programme of their choice,” says Rajive Kumar, member secretary, AICTE.

As per the norms, the registration of a student will be optional for browsing through the portal. But at the time of issuing the offer of admission to any international student, the institution would ask the student to register on the portal, if not already registered, and generate a unique EducationIndia portal ID. The student will have to register on the portal only once even if he.she has got multiple offers from various HEIs. “We are going to issue unique IDs to the students which in future can be used when visas are granted to them. This will help us get real-time data of international students, and bring their admission processes under a common platform,” Kumar says.

“The portal, created in view of the NEP 2020 focus on internationalisation of education, will give impetus to courses in IT, Indian ethos and Medicine which is where the strength of Indian education lies. And while it will have no role to play in selecting students or provide scholarships, it will act as a facilitator among international students, academia and the funding agencies,” Kumar adds.

“Indian HEIs were earlier complacent about their course offerings, but with many Indian HEIs now participating in QS and THE rankings, it has become important to score well in the metrics that mark international student strength. The portal will help make that a reality,” says Yogesh Singh, vice-chancellor, Delhi University (DU) that has international students coming from Central Asia, parts of Africa and Eastern Europe. “Since Indian HEIs provide quality education at reasonable cost, students from South and North America and Western Europe may want to explore India as a potential study hub,” Singh adds.

“The portal will give international students access to clear verifiable information that were challenges for them earlier. Word of mouth and agents form major forms of knowing and accessing higher education in India. The portal is set to change that, though it may not increase admissions immediately, as awareness about the existence of this facility will take time. But in the long run it has the potential to improve the students numbers, more so from Asia, Africa and the Middle East where students look for affordable education,” says Anil Joseph Pinto, registrar, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Hosur Road, Bengaluru, adding that the university is registered in the AICTE portal and has had students from 77 countries in the last five years and about 650 foreign students on its roll every year.