Thousands of students choose India as the educational destination every year – to pursue their desired vocation without compromising on quality. Apart from undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral courses, there are many more training and diploma-level institutes and polytechnics that cater to the growing demand and requirement for skill-based and vocational education. The existence of a large number of institutions and colleges for higher and technical education that offer quality education by maintaining global standards reflects the organised nature of the educational system in India. It also reflects the high degree of awareness that exists about higher and technical education practices and teaching methodologies. Why Indian education?

Indian universities and institutes of higher education and research have attained global recognition by their significant contribution in research and development in areas ranging from biotechnology to ocean engineering. Even in traditional subjects like arts and humanities, pure sciences, applied physics and chemistry, and mathematics, Indian universities and institutes of higher studies have been playing a leading role.

India today can boast of the second largest higher education network in the world. At present there are 343 universities in India including the institutions of national importance like the IITs, IIMs and AIIMS. There are 40 agricultural universities, 36 technology institutes, 18 medical universities, 11 open universities, 7 specialised universities focusing on fine arts and languages, 5 law universities among others. Of the total number, 98 are deemed universities. There are universities focusing on journalism, social work, planning and architecture and other specialised studies. Within the system, there are over 17,000 colleges, of which 1,800 are women's colleges.

There are as many as 66 distance education institutions functioning in 60 universities besides 11 open universities offering distance education programmes. The Indira Gandhi National Open University

(IGNOU) is one of the mega open universities in the world and caters to around one million students around the world. In addition, vocational education at certificate level is offered in 1500 vocational institutions across the country in the areas of agriculture, business, commerce, health and para-medical, home science and humanities in addition to engineering trades.

Most Indian universities teach in English Medium. For students who are weak in English, most colleges and universities conduct special language courses. India boasts of the 3rd largest English speaking population in the world.

Quality is the benchmark for development of infrastructure, curriculum, human resources and research and the establishment of centres of excellence, interdisciplinary and inter-institutional centres. While the university system comes under the jurisdiction of the University Grants Commission (UGC), professional institutions are co-ordinated by different bodies. It is mandatory for all institutions to be recognised by the appropriate national level statutory bodies established by the Government of India for compliance to quality standards. Some of the statutory bodies constituted for this purpose are:

• All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
• Medical Council of India (MCI)
• Dental Council of India (DCI)
• Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR)

In addition, quality of education is assured through the
National Board of Accreditation or NBA for technical education) and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for higher education.

The quality of Indian education is comparable to the best available anywhere in the world, at reasonable costs. The annual tuition fees for undergraduate and postgraduate courses are much lower and in many cases one-third or onefourth of what students would have to pay elsewhere.