French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday spoke about “welcoming” more Indian students to France, and vice versa in the near future, while announcing easier visa norms.
Speaking at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) campus in New Delhi, Macron signaled the willingness to strengthening educational ties with India, and France's commitment to increasing student mobility between both countries.
“We want to welcome more Indian students and have more French students coming here. We are currently speaking about 10,000 per year,” ANI news agency cited Macron as saying. He added that he had, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, decided to increase the above number to 30,000 Indian students.
Macron's announcement for Indian students
Targeting a higher number of Indian students in France, Macron said his country will streamline visa and sourcing procedures for Indian students.
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“From the French side, we will simplify the sourcing and the visa process,” he said, according to ANI. Macron assured that France would streamline procedures so that they become more practical and are aligned with the students' expectations.
“We will clearly streamline the approach in order to meet expectations and make it much more practical for students. We will establish better connections in order to support students more effectively,” the French President said.
{{/usCountry}}“We will clearly streamline the approach in order to meet expectations and make it much more practical for students. We will establish better connections in order to support students more effectively,” the French President said.
{{/usCountry}}Along with the simplified visa norms, he said France would also expand the availability of courses to be taught in English, ANI reported. Macron highlighted France's academic strengths, saying Indian students who pursue degrees there would be exposed to world-class teaching and leading research centres. “I would also like to tell all Indian students who come to France that we have best-in-class teaching and access to research centres with strong interdisciplinary collaboration,” ANI cited Macron as saying.
He committed to diversifying academic programmes so that they are also conducted in English, in order to make higher education accessible to Indian students.