Twenty-year-old Ahmed Names Ahmed from war-torn Iraq is a happy man these days.
He has been pursuing engineering course away from his hometown at Salah Al-Din in Iraq. “I want to stay here and continue to pursue M.Tech and other allied courses and later search for a job in India. It’s a safe and peaceful place for learning,” he said.
Like Ahmed, several youngsters from Iraq are evincing interest in pursuing courses in India and the Acharya Nagarjuna University has turned out to be a preferred destination for them. Students from Iraq topped the list of foreign students pursuing various courses in the university. As many as 147 students, including 25 women, joined in the academic year 2014-15.
The university has given provisional admission to about 120 foreign students for the academic year 2015-16. Of them, a majority of them are from Iraq. Twenty-six students from Iraq and three from Libya enrolled for English Language Skill Development Training Program while a few of them joined the pharmacy course. Besides Iraq and Libya, students from Tanzania, Ethiopia, Bhutan and Nepal among other countries are also studying in the ANU.
University Academic Counsellor in Economics (International Studies) M. Syamala said as of now 395 foreign students were given admissions in 47 courses offered in the university. “We have provided online facility for these students to ensure hassle-free admission process. We are collecting fee depending on the curriculum,” she said.
Ms. Syamala said the Ministry of Education in Iraq has selected ANU as one among the top 10 universities in the country and this has enabled students to seek admissions in the varsity. “We are asking them to submit details of their passport, parents and other reference names in their native place before admitting them,” she said.
Some of these students were staying at international students’ home on the campus premises while others preferred rented houses at places in the vicinity of the university.
