UGC releases guidelines for supernumerary seats for international students

The institutes have also been asked to distribute these 25 per cent seats among all departments, schools, centres or any other academic unit of the higher educational institution.

These 25% of the supernumerary seats for international students will not include the international students under exchange programmes or and through MoUs between UGC, governments and institutes. (Representative image/ File)

The University Grants Commission (UGC) today released guidelines for admission and creation of supernumerary seats for international students in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes in higher educational institutes (HEIs) in India.

As per the official notice, HEIs are allowed to create up to 25 per cent supernumerary seats for international students, over and above of their total sanctioned enrolment for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The decision regarding 25 per cent supernumerary seats has to be carried out by the concerned higher educational institutions as per specific guidelines regulations issued by the regulatory bodies considering the infrastructure., faculty and other requirements.

However, these 25 per cent of the supernumerary seats for international students will not include the international students under exchange programmes or and through Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between institutions or between Government of India and other countries.

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The institutes have also been asked to distribute these 25 per cent seats among all departments, schools, centres or any other academic unit of the higher educational institution.

UGC reiterated that supernumerary seats should be exclusively meant for the international students in UG and PG programmes, i.e. if the seats are left empty, these seats should not be allocated to anyone other than an international
student.

The supernumerary seats in professional and technical institutes will be governed by the respective statutory bodies, and PhD seats will be governed by the Regulations notified by the UGC.

Also, it is deemed compulsory for all such institutes to have an ‘Office for International Students’ to maintain year-wise details such as country, number, programme/subject, duration etc.