The Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) on Friday conducted a webinar on ‘India a Global Education Hub’ on the growing importance of the education sector globally. The aim of the webinar was to discuss solutions to the future of imparting education to international students by breaking all the hurdles faced in the current situation due to the Covid pandemic.

“India has an enormous potential to offer superior training to international students. The Government of India has announced initiatives like “Study in India”, which helped bring more international students to our country. Still, some hurdles have not been letting the potential be utilised effectively,” said Abhay Sinha, Director General of SEPC.

The main challenge faced by interest in international education is Covid-19. The pandemic has affected the international movement of students and teachers across the world. Universities have received almost nil enrollments of international students in the last session (2020-21) and the ongoing session (2021-22), not just in India, but around the globe, he added.

The webinar threw light upon critical areas such as quality content in our education system, an innovative model of education that is inclusive and friendly to students worldwide, synergy with industry to increase employability post successful completion of the education programs, and creating brand equity to promote the visibility of renowned Indian institutions in the world domain was such key areas highlighted.

“The SEPC and e-commerce will join hands to build a portal on education for emphasising the quality of education we could provide to the international students. This digital portal will promote the quality of pedagogy that India offers and all related content. SEPC will take all the necessary initiatives to implement it soon. The portal will pave the way for opportunities through which the educational institutions will gain through the visibility among overseas users of digital content, institutions, various courses and attracting foreign students,” said Maneck Davar, Chairman, SEPC.