Piyush Goyal highlights need for encouraging students from developed nations to study in India

New Delhi: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday emphasised the need to encourage students from developed countries to come and study in India.

He suggested models like a three-year programme in which students spend one year in India and two years at their home university, or divide their time equally between the two institutions.

Goyal said such dual degree programmes would help students from developed countries better understand how developing nations think, work, and engage with culture and society.


"There is now a need to encourage students from developed countries to come and study in India," he said here while addressing the Vice Chancellor's Conclave on 'Reimagining Internationalisation of Higher Education for Viksit Bharat 2047' here.

It was organised by the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), which is under the ministry.

He said that higher education institutions must evolve with changing times and that teachers should undergo retraining and relearning so that they remain current with modern curriculum and future-oriented knowledge while teaching students.

Students cannot be prepared for the future through outdated curricula, he said adding institutions and teachers must remain agile and understand emerging opportunities that the future holds.

Goyal highlighted the importance of internationalisation of India's trade, manufacturing and services sectors as well as engagement with modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and machine learning.

He expressed hope that in the coming years the present ratio of 28 Indian students going abroad for every one international student coming to India would be reversed, and that India would attract around 1.3 million foreign students to study in its institutions while only a small number of Indian students go abroad.