January 22, 2021.
TED NewsDesk, New Delhi: To make studying easier for its international students, Delhi University has collaborated with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to set up an Indian Council for Cultural Research (ICCR).
The Council focuses on providing scholarships to foreign students from around 120 countries. This decision has been taken keeping in mind the recent surge in international students in Delhi University. According to PC Joshi, acting VC of DU, in the academic session of 2019-2020, three times more than the usual number of foreign students took admission despite there being a pandemic at large. He added that students from over 80 nations joined DU thanks to ICCR.
He said, “Apart from organising academic and cultural programmes, the ICCR will help in arranging residential facilities for the foreign students, which by far remains the biggest problem. The scholarships offered by the council will also attract students from other developing nations. Having a dedicated centre will ease out the pressure for students as they will have a one-stop solution for all information and documentation-related queries.”
The university has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ICCR and will focus on refining academic and cultural interactions for the international students as well as teachers. Joshi further said, “The Centre will become the North zonal regional office of the council and will help all the foreign students who will be joining universities in North India. The role of this centre will be crucial since DU aims to increase enrolment of foreign students.”
The honorary advisor to the Centre will be Amarjiva Lochan, the deputy Dean (Foreign students) of DU. Very soon there will take place an induction programme to familiarise the international students with Indian cultural and social features.
Source: Times of India