The ending of the covid crisis appears like the right moment for the French grandes écoles and universities to position themselves more strongly in India.
Thank you to the India Committee of French Foreign Trade Advisors for inviting me to publish this article on their Linkedin page on February 17, 2022.
At the end of the covid crisis, the moment seems right for the French grandes écoles and universities to position themselves more strongly in India. In addition to its student demographics courted by universities around the world (38.5 million students, or 15% of the world's student population) and its economic prospects, the subcontinent offers immense academic wealth. In India there are academics of excellent level and brilliant students, who do not always find the right fit to pursue their studies in their country.
20,000 Indian students in France by 2025
The good news is that young Indians are increasingly choosing France for their higher education. The growth in numbers has been rapid, rising from 4,000 Indian students in France in 2015 to 10,000 in 2019, thanks to the efforts of the French State and the establishment of local representative offices of several major French schools. Our common goal is to increase their number to 20,000 by 2025.
As much as we can be proud of these results, the challenges remain daunting. Currently, France attracts less than 2% of the approximately 600,000 to 750,000 Indians who leave each year to study abroad. To continue our progress, we will have to develop more courses in English, guarantee good reception conditions and high employability upon leaving, offer prestigious scholarships, as well as facilitate administrative procedures.
The Indian government's impetus for new international projects
With the Indian government's new National Education Policy 2020, a large set of reforms passed in 2020, Indian universities are also called upon to internationalize their courses through partnerships with foreign universities in particular. This will represent, we hope, an impetus for new, creative and ambitious projects to emerge in the coming years: double degrees, campuses of French establishments, Franco-Indian universities, etc.
For their part, the French companies in our Foreign Trade Advisors network, large groups and SMEs, have an important role to play so that France does not lose the talents it has trained. These graduates of French Grandes Écoles and universities often return to work in India. By attaching particular importance to these profiles, French companies in India can benefit from the expertise of young people (and not so young) endowed with a valuable dual academic and professional culture, at the heart of the Franco-Indian relationship of tomorrow.
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