Home of to some of the world’s best management and engineering institutes, France’s reputation as a favoured destination for Indian students looking to pursue postgraduate and doctoral programmes received a fillip with its recent announcement to offer long-stay visas of five years.
On Monday, several students including the ones chosen for the lucrative scholarship offered by the French government participated in a pre departure session. This year, 13 students from Karnataka have bagged the scholarships to fund their higher education in France. Of these, eight students from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, are heading to France for a student exchange programme.
The pre-departure session for students travelling to France to join the fall academic session was inaugurated by Eric Lavertu, Consul-General of France in Bangalore.
Doubts relating to visa application process, health insurance, food, cultural aspects and accommodation in France were addressed by experts. An exclusive Q&A session by Vincent Caumontant, Deputy Consul, on visa formalities brought more clarity to the process which has also been simplified for students keeping the documentation process to the bare minimum.
With the recent announcement by the Ambassador of France to India, Francois Richier, making students pursuing their masters or doctoral research eligible for a five-year business/tourist visa, coming as a comforting sign to students who wish to study abroad, Campus France is already seeing more applications trickling in, says Madhuri Welling, education adviser, Campus France de Bangalore.
She added that in addition to the long-stay option, education in France is cheaper as compared to the US at a time when the rupee is depreciating.
“Also, France offers many courses in English and students do not need to mandatorily learn French to study there,” she said.
Students from India prefer to study management at INSEAD and HEC-Paris and engineering at institutes such as École Centrale Paris, Institut National des Sciences Appliqués (INSA) de Lyon and Télécom ParisTech. “Of all the engineering streams in French universities, it is aeronautical engineering which is most preferred by students,” shared Ms. Welling.
