Friday, February 26, 2016

Economically weak students can now hope for US degree

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Students from economically weaker sections in the city now have a chance of studying in the United States under Education USA Opportunity Fund programme.

The scheme, which is being launched in India for the first time, would target those students who excel in the academics but are economically poor to pursue their education.

Interestingly, the USIEF had already screened 50 students in the city of which 35 have applied. “We are soon going to shortlist the eligible students,” said Meera Seshadri, senior advisor, United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF).

However, she did not give out details on how many students would be eligible for the scholarship. “They would be selected for pursuing their undergraduate course during August 2017. The scholarship was available for other countries. This is the first time India has been included in the programme,” said Meera.

She said that this year the focus is only on Chennai and soon the programme would be expanded across the state. Interestingly, it is not the XIIth standard students who are being targeted. “We are looking at XIth standard student,” Meera said. The programme is yet to be given the due publicity, she added.

To a query on whether there is any income criteria for selecting the students from economic poor section, Meera said that though there is no criteria, USIEF would do background check before selecting the students.

“We are targeting matriculation school students under Samacheer Kalvi programme,” says Meera. To a query on how to upgrade their English skills, Meera said that USIEF has already started mentoring classes for the 35 students. Besides Chennai, USIEF is also tragetting students in other four centres --- Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata..

She said those selected (who are likely to be awarded full financial aid from US colleges and universities) would get up-front costs of obtaining admission, such as testing, application fees, or airfare.

Earlier, reacting to a query on deportation of nearly 400 Indian students from United states, US consul general Philip A Min said that they were not deported. He also refused to elaborate further stating that it is the prerogative of US Homeland security.

He said that in the year 2014-5, a total of 1.32 lakh students from India are studying in the United States. This is 29.4 per cent up from what was in the previous year. After China, India is the second leading place of origin for students coming to United States.

Regional officer of USIEF, Maya Sundararajan told Express that this year from July to December they had received 13,500 queries fro parents and students to pursue studies in United States.

“There is also a shift in preference. Usually it was engineering but now more students are preferring Arts and political Science,”: said Maya

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