Post Covid, students are looking North East for world-class higher education

For Narayan Chandra Talukdar, Vice Chancellor of Assam down town University one of the most prestigious institutions offering more than 64 different programmes and with over 8000 students from 10 Indian states as well as Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and as far as Rwanda, Nigeria and South Africa, the goal is to standardise the education system to meet global standards and compete favourably.North East India, especially Assam is fast emerging as a leading name in the field of higher education.


PTI | New Delhi | Updated: 03-09-2021 17:14 IST | Created: 03-09-2021 17:14 IST
Post Covid, students are looking North East for world-class higher education
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New Delhi, September 2, 2021: Post Covid, NE students and their parents are weighing options whether to go far for higher studies, or study in a nearby college which can provide world-class higher education with great infrastructure.

North East India: A burgeoning education hub Many students who studied outside Assam recently moved back to their home state post pandemic. They are taking admissions in a nearby college or university. Security-wise, they feel a lot safer in here. They have found that the colleges and universities in their home state are providing the same or better education compared to any institutions in a metro. This clearly captures the desire of every parent for their children as far as education is concerned – quality, safety, and practicality. These three requirements are now the instrument used to determine what higher institution is best for a child.

Indeed, education in North East India is coming of age. This is a widely shared opinion among stakeholders in the region. For Narayan Chandra Talukdar, Vice Chancellor of Assam down town University – one of the most prestigious institutions offering more than 64 different programmes and with over 8000 students from 10 Indian states as well as Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and as far as Rwanda, Nigeria and South Africa, the goal is to standardise the education system to meet global standards and compete favourably.

"North East India, especially Assam is fast emerging as a leading name in the field of higher education. Today it occupies an important place among the famous seats of higher educational institutions offering inclusive and equitable quality education leading to sustainable development and growth of the students. Assam has a number of management, medical and engineering colleges catering to the growing needs of the region and the country as a whole. Moreover, many reputed universities of the state have ushered in a new era of education in diverse disciplines providing rich career options to the students of the region. I encourage the young minds to take up this opportunity of choosing their area of study from the vast options available in our own region" The North East Indian states of Assam, Sikkim, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal, Mizoram, Pradesh, Tripura and Meghalaya have begun an educational resurgence geared towards building a system that works not just for the people of India, but for anyone across the globe seeking the requisite skill and international exposure required to function in today's world. Attracting foreign students From regular bachelor programmes and newly-initiated courses like BCA, BBA, Sericulture, Travel and Tourism, Environmental Science, among others, to several other professional courses to choose from, these tertiary institutions are opening up new vistas and frontiers for quality learning and research. Another major angle to consider is cultural diversity of the region that exposes foreign students to a whole new experience. Its enormous natural resources and bio-diversity and relatively high literacy rate further project India's North East region as a truly global enclave. According to current statistics, most of the foreign students come from Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh Africa, Bhutan, Nigeria, Lao, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Iran, with many of them seeking the B-Tech engineering degree, and a large number of many others taking the BBA degree in Business Administration. Other popular undergraduate courses for foreign students are Pharmacy, Medicine, Computer Applications, Fashion, Sociology, Dentistry and Nursing. Driving the wheel of change Former Union Human Resource Development Minister, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal was quoted recently as saying that government seems committed to the provision of quality education and the improvement of infrastructure in India's educational sector, and especially for students of North East India. He listed several actions taken by government in recent time, including approving the sum of Rs 986.47 crores for a permanent campus at Sikkim University at Yangyang. With 300 acres of land valued at Rs 15 crore already allotted by the government of Sikkim, the authorities seem poised to upgrade the educational system in the region.

The sanctioning of the revised cost estimates of NITs at cities like Arunachal, Mizoram, Pradesh, Meghalaya and Nagaland is also worthy of note. These institutions will come into full effect at their respective permanent campuses by March 31st 2022, if everything goes according to plan. These are some efforts that give parents and stakeholders some hope that North East India may soon begin to compete alongside the top institutes across the country. Already, there are many institutions that stand out in the region.

For this Guwahati-based educator, Randhir Gogoi, the last decade has witnessed the emergence of North East India as a new educational hub with numerous state and non-state universities and colleges being established. ''These institutions, both government and private, provide world class infrastructure and teaching resources that have been able to retain local students to a larger extent than ever before. Furthermore, auxiliary services like new libraries, bookshops, recruitment fairs, even paying guests and private hostels have added to the educational infrastructure in the region, along with generating employment and new incomes for people. Assam's exemplary footprints The words of Nani Gopal Mahanta, Academic/Education Advisor to the Assam Government and Professor and Head of the Department of Political Science and Director of Global Studies Centre at Gauhati University provide a personal perspective to this trend. "At the department of South East Asian Studies at Gauhati University, I was able to bring together 30 students from foreign countries – Nepal, Laos, and Thailand. They got to study one semester in our university. In that particular semester, there's a paper on Indian Studies Programme, for which they stayed here for six months with credit transfer facility. After the completion, the credit gets transferred to the parent university." "I would prefer my kids studying here in Assam because in the present times our state is at par with the other states boasting of providing world class education and state of the art infrastructure. I feel that studying at one's own place saves much of the unnecessary hassles caused by issues like travel, food, homesickness, language problem and many more," says Mr Roy, a parent of a student who studies at Assam down town University.

"The consistent efforts of AdtU to be at par with the global standards in education has resulted in higher inflow of students from other states like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kashmir, Chennai, etc. apart from the north eastern states to our university. AdtU offers the best experience in terms of campus life, placements and industry exposure", added Narayan Chandra Talukdar, Vice Chancellor of Assam down town University.

As the wind of change continues to blow through the universities, colleges and institutes of higher learning in North East India, it is imperative to sustain the tempo and truly give the region the attention it deserves to be transformed into a centre, not just for leisure tourism, but for educational tourism as well. PWR PWR

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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