HYDERABAD: It was a long cherished dream for the 100-odd foreign students and the emotions were quite visible on their faces as they received their degrees.
The sixth degree award ceremony for foreign students of Osmania University saw 128 students receiving their degrees in various streams. The degrees were awarded by OU Vice-Chancellor S. Satyanarayana, while Hassan Nourian, Consul General of Islamic Republic of Iran, Hyderabad was the chief guest.
Majority of these students were from Iraq, Nepal, Somalia, Iran and China and the maximum of 26 students each were from the MBA and BCA streams while 20 students got degrees in B.Com and 16 in the M.Sc course. Mr. Nourian said that students from Iran were satisfied with the teaching facilities at Osmania University and in the near future, they intend to sign an MoU with OU in the filed of faculty and student exchange programmes. He hoped that the educational relationship between Iran and India will flourish further.
The Vice-Chancellor said that off-shore studies help students to expose themselves to multicultural milieu and this benefits them more than reading a hundred books. University Foreign Relations Office Director C. Venugopal Rao said that OU was now a home to about 4,500 foreign students hailing from as many as 80 countries. He said that during this academic year OU admitted 1,500 foreign students in various courses and this was 15 per cent more compared to the last academic year. Students said India offered quality education and it was much cheaper in India compared to other countries.
The same courses would have cost them US$ 10,000 while it was just US $ 3,000 in India. Registrar M.S.N. Reddy, Examinations Controller G. Bhikshamaiah and UFRO Joint Director G.B. Reddy were also present.
