The Indian government has launched 1,000 PhD fellowships for students from ASEAN countries to be taken up in the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology across the country in a bid to further internationalise its campuses and boost academic ties with East Asian neighbours.
A joint initiative of the human resource development and the ministry of external affairs, the program, launched at a ceremony in New Delhi, could prove to be a win-win for scholars from ASEAN and the IITs.
“We are opening up IITs to 1,000 brilliant [ASEAN] students”
With a total budget of INR 300 crore (USD$45 million), it is the single-largest capacity development initiative of India in its partnership with ASEAN, according to a statement from the Indian government.
“We are opening up IITs to 1,000 brilliant [ASEAN] students to do research,” India’s external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.
Honoured to launch the largest capacity-building programme in the #ASEANIndia partnership – offering 1000 fellowships to students from our SE Asian neighbourhood to carry out doctoral research at IITs. Thank Ministry of HRD @DrRPNishank & IIT for this initiative. pic.twitter.com/y16bzxYh8P
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) September 16, 2019
Higher education secretary R. Subrahmanyam added that the initiative will fund 250 scholars in 2019, 300 in 2020 and 450 the year after, adding that the announcement will not be a one-off and the country wants to strengthen its Study in India move through various initiatives.
The government statement explained that the funding will cover the students’ entire cost of study and living expenses for up to five years for a PhD program.
Aspiring scholars from ASEAN countries will be able to apply via a single portal and following the selection process, they will be assigned one of the 23 IITs to pursue the PhD.
The first batch of the ASEAN students will be admitted in January 2020.
Earlier this month, the government of India announced it will offer 15,000 scholarships to African students over the next five years to pursue online courses as part of a pan-African e-network project on education and medicine.
