UGC guidelines: 25 per cent extra seats to be created for foreign students

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has issued guidelines relating to admission and supernumerary seats of international students in Under Graduate (UG) and Post Graduate (PG) programmes in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) in India.

In its latest circular, the UGC has stated that HEIs may create up to 25 per cent supernumerary seats for international students, over and above of their total sanctioned enrolment for UG and PG. Moreover, the decision regarding 25 per cent supernumerary seats has to be carried out by the concerned higher educational institutions as per specific guidelines/regulations issued by the regulatory bodies considering the infrastructure, faculty and other requirements.

“The 25 per cent of the supernumerary seats for international students will not include the international students under exchange programmes or/and through Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between institutions or between Government of India and other countries,” the UGC guidelines said.

Other Highlights

- Efforts should be made to distribute these 25 per cent seats among all departments, schools, centres or any other academic unit of the higher educational institution. wherever possible depending on the availability of infrastructure and qualified faculty. Such seats shall be exclusively meant for the international students both for UG and PG programmes.

-In case a seat remained unfilled under this category, it shall not be allocated to anyone other than an international student. International students in this context shall be defined as the one who shall possess a foreign passport.

-The supernumerary seats in professional and other technical institutes shall be governed by the respective statutory bodies. Supernumerary seats for Ph.D. programmes shall be governed by the Regulations notified by UGC.