Summit to lure African students to India
There are approximately 25,000 African students studying across universities in India. CII wants this number to grow.
There are approximately 25,000 students currently studying at the 500 public and private universities across India. A higher education summit planned for next month hopes to lure more students to India still.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is planning the summit in coordination with the Indian government. According to the CII, the numbers of African students in India could always grow exponentially with India-Africa cooperation. In a statement, CII said India has a “reputable, older and more developed higher education sector than Africa”, which is likely to be a magnet to students, adding that “the country remains among the top five destinations for African students”.
The summit is expected to be held in New Delhi from 26-27 August and will provide an opportunity for Indian education providers to interact with leaders from African governments, civil society, the private sector and universities to discuss opportunities for collaboration in the education sector. Among its objectives is an exploration of the possibility of establishing “quality, publicly-funded colleges and universities of higher and technical education, modelled on the Indian institutes of technology and of science, with Indian collaboration”. Other objectives include the development of curricula; semester exchange programmes for African students in India; the forging of knowledge partnerships, especially in technical training with the private sector, to strengthen curricula and research to make graduates employable; and possibilities for training of African students by Indian companies doing business in Africa.
Focus countries include Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Tanzania.
The forum will also provide aplatform for African countries to showcase the investment opportunities in the education and related sectors to the potential investors who will attend the event. The statement said universities in Africa were “generators of development and of modernisation in practically every sense of the word”. This was despite the fact that higher education in Africa was “poorly developed” and faced “serious problems” such as “overcrowding and luring away of staff by Western countries for higher pay and better conditions”.
The statement noted that many of the problems thaf Africa faces in the education sector are similar to the ones that India faces and that a patnership could be a win-win situation for both India and Africa.
– University World News
Header Image Credit: University of Delhi
