Attracting foreign students has always been a challenge for Indian institutes as the country does not figure among the top global destinations for study. To overcome this, some of the centres of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have introduced supernumerary seats in many of the courses.

 “Our classrooms have become more gender diverse in the past few years with students from various educational backgrounds. We are now targeting foreign nationals to improve cultural diversity. From rural Bihar to metro cities, students from all walks of life join the institute. But, most of the world’s current and future problems are global, which require global mindsets to devise solutions. We have also linked up with Study in India programme and reoriented the entire admission policy,” says Shubhasis Dey, Dean (Programmes and International Relations), IIM-K.

For the five-year integrated programme in management (IPM), IIM Indore also has a supernumerary quota. Of the total 150 seats, only 5 are reserved under the special category. No such category has been introduced yet in other courses.

“The idea to have more foreign students on campus holds utmost importance but we need to be careful about what programme do they fit into. Institutes must also scrutinise applications as much as possible and be mindful of their origin countries as the motto is to add value to the classrooms. Most often, we get applications from Indians with foreign passports. In international business schools, the concept of admitting international students is called recruiting. Our institute is also devising a plan of recruiting students from foreign counties and SAARC countries will be our prime focus,” says Himanshu Rai, director, IIM Indore.