No female foreign student enrolment into PhD courses in Odisha varsities

Bhubaneswar: Even as several MoUs have been inked for strengthening the higher education in Odisha, the universities, which boast of offering world class education, failed to perform upto mark.

Odisha is among the states that are at the bottom of Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in foreign students’ enrolment list as compared to the national average. Even not a single female student from foreign nations was enrolled into PhD courses in the state in the year 2017.

As per All India Higher Education Survey (AIHES) report released by HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar on January 5, the foreign students are not preferring to get enrolled into higher studies here in Odisha universities.

There are 24 universities, 1086 colleges including 143 technical institutions, 181 nursing colleges, 65 teachers training institutions, 13 Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) institutions in Odisha. Besides, the central institutions like IIT, NIT and central university have also been set up in the State. However, Odisha registered disappointing number in terms of foreign students’ enrolment.

As per 2016-17 academic data, only 309 foreign students were enrolled in Odisha, out of which 276 male students and 33 female students. Only 46 students including 41 male and 5 female students are pursuing their Post Graduation (PG) in 24 universities. The total of PhD students registered was 28, only male students. However, none of the female foreign student got enrolled in Odisha for PhD courses.

The AIHES report showed that Tamil Nadu topped the list with highest GER at 46.9%, whereas Bihar has the lowest GER with 14.9% in list of foreign students’ enrolment.

The report said that the country’s GER in higher education rose by 0.7%. Total 47,575 foreign students were enrolled into various courses in India in the year 2016-17, only marginal improvement from 45,424 in 2015-16.