As per the latest Franco-Indian roadmap, France has set a new target of welcoming around 30,000 Indian students by 2030. Apart from that, a five-year short-term Schengen visa will be provided to Indian master’s graduates who have studied at least a semester in France.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Franco-India partnership, both countries have adopted a new roadmap for the course of bilateral relations until 2047. This announcement was made during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to France.
It is expected that the initiative will include an array of academic disciplines, including science, technology, engineering, the arts, and the humanities. French universities are ready to provide innovative programmes that appeal to the changing interests of Indian students and meet the requirements of the international job market.
According to the roadmap, France is on a mission to welcome 20,000 Indian students by the end of 2025, whereas the target of 30,000 students is set for 2030. However, the reports from Campus France in 2021 reveal that 6,321 Indian students were enrolled in French Higher education institutions, which makes India the 14th highest country in terms of sending students.
It has been observed that since 2016, the number of Indian students in France has increased by 92%. Further, it has also been announced that a new format will be adopted for international classes. This introduction of a new system will facilitate the integration of non-French-speaking Indian students. The spokesperson stated that for France to achieve its goal of 500,000 students by 2027, public universities must support some measures.
The spokesperson expects that at first 15 to 30 public universities will invest in the newly developed programmes and noted that the courses can be self-sustaining in terms of cost after only two or three years.