Page 95 - EW-January-2026

Special Essay

Case for post-study

'S' visas

SIFRA LENTIN

VER THE PAST MONTHS, VISA RESTRICTIONS This is an opportune moment for India to
have been imposed on foreign students, especially
Indian students, in higher education institutions attract foreign students by introducing
Oin western destinations such as the US, UK, Can- an 'S' visa that permits them to work
ada and Australia. Most impacted is post-study work op-
portunity to acquire valuable industry experience. This is in India after graduation. This is the
an opportune moment for India to step up to attract foreign missing link in Indian higher education
students to our shores by introducing an ‘S’ visa that per-
mits post-study work in India. This is the missing link in ecosystem
India’s fast internationalising higher education ecosystem.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has made mitting paid employment under ‘S’ category visas. Next,
internationalisation a pivot for reforms of the country’s the ministry of finance which will determine the applica-
higher education sector. The new paradigm aims to raise bility of India’s tax laws and double taxation treaties on
standards of Indian tertiary education under several key income earned by foreign students. The ministry of educa-
parameters — overhaul of syllabi, campuses with foreign tion, through the UGC and AICTE (All India Council for
faculty, students, researchers, and joint and/or dual de- Technical Education), will be required to frame guidelines
grees conferred by Indian universities and colleges with for on-campus recruitment of foreign students.
their foreign counterparts. According to the latest All India Survey of Higher Educa-
Some of these mandates have begun to be implemented. tion Report (2021-22), there were 46,878 foreign students
Foreign universities have established campuses in Gujarat, from 170 countries enrolled in Indian HEIs. This number
Haryana, and elsewhere. As in China and West Asia, these must have increased as the Study in India website received
will become popular over time. But they won’t succeed un- 72,000 plus applications from foreign students from 200
less India can give foreign students a chance to work here nations for the academic year 2024-25.
after graduation. t’s noteworthy that India’s population growth has dipped
This issue isn’t addressed in NEP 2020, nor by the edu- Ibelow the replacement rate of 2.1 percent, and the coun-
cation ministry. However, a 2023 paper by Gateway House, try will begin ageing soon, like China, according to the UN
Internationalising Indian Education: Work Visas for For- Population Fund. The number of elderly citizens will double
eign Students (2023), recommends grant of work visas to from 149 million in 2022 to 347 million in 2050, eventually
foreign students graduating from universities in India, con- overtaking the number of youth.
tending that it will help trade negotiations and reciprocate Economic growth cannot be sustained with a dwindling
work opportunities that Indian students enjoy in the An- working population — as is being witnessed by Japan, Ger-
glosphere, Europe and even Brazil, China, and Singapore. many, and China. The US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and
It would also infuse Indian companies expanding overseas Canada have offset this by providing post-study student
with foreign talent that understands Indian corporate and work visas. Likewise, European nations have chosen the
business culture. migration route to make good their worker deficits and this
Currently, India hosts 62,000 higher education institu- is strongly impacting their domestic politics. India needs to
tions (HEIs) with an aggregate enrolment of 43.3 million learn from these experiences. It can offer work experience
students. And although new private HEIs are mushroom- which is unlikely to result in significant migration.
ing in India, that’s not enough for a country with a huge Prime Minister Narendra Modi has identified higher ed-
youth population bulge. Consequently a large and growing ucation as a champion export sector for promotion abroad.
number of school-leavers and graduates venture abroad for Elite Indian institutions such as the IIMs and IITs have
higher education. already established campuses abroad. Most recently IIT-
In 2024, 7.5 lakh students from India signed up to study Madras began degree courses in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and
abroad. At home, although some of the new HEIs have suc- IIT-Bombay is planning a campus in Japan. Private univer-
ceeded in attracting international faculty, the challenge of sities including Manipal set up campuses in the Caribbean
attracting foreign students to Indian HEIs to create cosmo- and Malaysia long ago, and now newer Sharda and Amity
politan campuses hasn’t been successful. The Union minis- universities have established campuses in Uzbekistan.
try of education’s goal was to attract 2 lakh foreign students These are notable outcomes of the five-year-old NEP,
by 2023-24. Against this, a mere 50,000 foreign students 2020. Against this backdrop, a post-study ‘S’ visa for foreign
are enrolled in Indian HEIs. graduates of Indian universities is overdue. It will attract
Issuance of ‘S’ visas to foreign students graduating from more international students looking for work experience
Indian HEIs can correct this anomaly. This would require in what will soon be the third largest economy worldwide.
inputs from several ministries. First, from the ministry of (Sifra Lentin is Bombay History Fellow, Gateway House: Indian Council on
home affairs (MHA), which should issue a notification per- Global Relations)

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