Panjab University to bump up seats for foreign students to 25%
These seats will not include international students under exchange programmes or through memorandum of understanding (MoU) between institutions or governments
To boost international enrolments, Panjab University (PU) will add 25% seats over and above the total number of sanctioned seats in all undergraduate and postgraduate courses for foreign national students.
As per the previous guidelines, 10% seats were reserved for NRIs/wards of NRI candidates while 5% seats were reserved for foreign nationals. With this move, seats for foreign students have been increased from 5% to 25%. The decision is as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines dated April 26. It will not apply to BDS/MDS course or any other course governed by a regulatory body which does not allow additional seats.
The supernumerary seats would be exclusively meant for students who possess a foreign passport. These seats will not include international students under exchange programmes or through memorandum of understanding (MoU) between institutions or governments.
Shedding more light on the move, vice-chancellor (V-C) Renu Vig said it will impact the inflow of students in University Institute of Pharmaceutical Studies, University Institute of Engineering and Technology and University Institute of Applied Management Sciences, where maximum foreign students were enrolled. She added that the varsity hoped each department to have international students. Last year, enrolment of international students stood at around 50 as per officials, which was lesser than previous years.
As per officials, students are majorly from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and some African countries.
While the varsity also has to find takers for extra seats, which has proved to be another challenge, if international students were to apply for all these seats, it could lead to over 3,500 new students joining PU. Officials, however, hope the number to touch 500.
The university has fared poorly when it comes to international student ratio in various rankings. In the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2025 released in June, PU scored a mere 1.7. While the varsity had gained the highest A++ grading by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in 2023, inspection team had highlighted PU’s weakness of failing to attract international students.
Dean (international students) prof Kewal Krishan said international students could apply till July 18 and added that fee concessions had also been granted so that more students opt for PU.
