Foreign students are not exactly enthralled by the prospect of studying at Mumbai University. An analysis of the information obtained from a Right to Information (RTI) petition filed by activist Manoranjan Roy shows a sharp decline in foreign students seeking admission to Mumbai University (MU).
In the last five years, a total of 668 foreign students sought admission to Mumbai University and its affiliated colleges. The annual statistics for 2018-2023 show that 166 foreign students were admitted to the academic session 2018-’19 while there were 169 such candidates in 2019-’20.
In the Covid pandemic lockdown period of 2020-’21, 101 foreign students joined MU, with this number going up to 112 in 2021-’22. In the academic year of 2022-’23, there were 120 foreign admissions, about 30 per cent less than in the last four to five years.
Interestingly, the data shows that after MU, IIT Bombay, the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and Tata Institute of Social Sciences are institutions where the maximum number of foreign students enrol.
However, in the 26 pages of information obtained by Roy, there is no marked inclination towards any particular college each year.
At the HR College of Commerce and Economics, where 21 per cent of the total number of foreign students sought admission in 2018-’19 and 2019-’20, there has been no foreign student for the last two academic years.
Colleges like Bhavan’s, Don Bosco, Hinduja College, Kandivali Education Society, SIES Nerul College of Arts, Science and Commerce, St Andrew’s College of Arts Science and Commerce have become popular with foreign students. St Xavier’s College had the maximum number of foreign enrolments in the years 2018-’19 and 2019-’20, with about a quarter of the total number of foreign students seeking admissions in Mumbai.
“The popularity of St Xavier’s can also be gauged from the fact that even during the Covid lockdown in 2020-’21, when there were 101 foreign admissions to Mumbai institutions, 16 sought St Xavier’s,” Roy observed.
Roy had not just sought information on the number of students who had wanted to study in MU in the last five years, but also on how many of these foreign admissions had obtained degrees and how many were still studying.
Additionally, Roy had also sought to know how many of these students had been subject to disciplinary action and whether any student had lodged a complaint against the university or college administration, teachers, professors or management. However, no information about this was available with the university.
A cursory glance at the names of the students reveals that most of the students are of Indian origin, with names like Aditya, Akshay, Aman, Ayesha, Bhumika, Komal, Harshit, Shubham, Sanjana, Siddhant, Shruti, Saraswati etc. Mumbai University is considered one of the largest universities, with more than 700 colleges affiliated to it.
"The number of foreign students is low in comparison with the number of colleges affiliated to MU and we have to improve the quality of our education to match with international standards," Roy said.
