Bangalore favourite destination for foreign students

Here’s exactly what meets even to the undiscerning eye. The empirical evidence of so many young foreigners has found a sound statistical basis — about one in every four foreign students in India pursues his or her studies in Karnataka.

The state is reported to have around 10,100 foreign students, which constitutes around 36.7 per cent of the total number of foreign students studying in the country. It is the leading state in attracting students from overseas, followed by neighbouring Andhra Pradesh which attracts only 4,700 students (17.06 per cent).

The findings are from a study titled ‘Status of Higher Education in South India 2013’ that was conducted recently by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Private Limited (DTTIPL) and industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Karnataka also ranks fifth among all states and union territories in terms of the total number of universities with 43. It ranks second in the number of state public universities with 23 and third on deemed universities with 11. Karnataka, in fact, has 6.9 per cent of all universities. The state also has the highest number of medical universities (6) in the country, and ranks fifth in number of general universities (21).

According to the report, Karnataka, with 3098 colleges, has a share of 9.4 per cent of all colleges in India and ranks fourth in terms of total colleges in any state. In terms of access, it has the second highest concentration of 44 colleges per lakh population as compared to the all-India average of 23 colleges per lakh population. In terms of average enrolment per college, the state (414) is lesser than all-India average of 700. The total enrolment of students in regular mode in higher education institutes in Karnataka is around 16.06 lakh. Out of the total colleges in the state, 90 per cent are affiliated to universities, and the remaining are constituent/university colleges.