The German Ambassador on Tuesday reassured Indian students that the country is “a reliable partner” and said that it is “eager and happy to receive talents from India”.
With other countries capping international student intake, along with the Donald Trump administration’s crackdown on top American universities, Philipp Ackermann said: “We feel that Germany has been a reliable partner for Indian students for a long, long time and will remain so. We are interested in Indian talent. We are not erratic, we are not volatile, we are very, very steady.”
At a press meet in Delhi, he said: “We don’t check social media before you come. We are very eager to have talented young Indians coming to Germany.”
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Ackermann’s comments come in the wake of the Donald Trump administration reportedly considering the vetting of social media accounts of prospective international students applying for student visas.
“In the light of difficulties with student admissions and visa procedures in some countries, this may be a good time to state that Germany is very eager and happy to receive Indian students. German universities and research institutions have extremely good experiences with Indian students, and we have seen that the number of Indian students is increasing every year,” Ackermann said.
“We are very aware that this number may go up because of the current situation elsewhere,” Ackermann said, adding: “Over the past couple of months, applications across the state-owned universities have gone up 35%.”
Going by data presented in response to a question in Parliament last year, Germany is among the top five countries for Indian students studying abroad, standing fifth after Canada, the USA, the UK, and Australia.
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Data shared by Katja Lasch, Director, Regional Office New Delhi, DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), shows that the number of Indian students enrolled in German universities rose from 13,740 in 2015-16 to 25,149 in 2019-20, and further to 49,483 in 2023-24.
“The German education system is a public good, which means most universities don’t charge for studies. And if they charge… the fee is rather limited,” he said.
Cautioning Indian students, Ackermann said: “We see aggressive recruitment by some institutions in Germany who work with agents. My appeal to Indian students is… don’t use agents. Go individually for the choice of universities. It is easy, and the websites are good. There is no need to pay money to expensive agents who direct you on the wrong path.”
Ackermann also said, “Germany needs skilled labour and those who have graduated from German universities have, of course, a greater chance of joining the labour market than others… we are looking for the smartest and the brightest.” He said that those who have studied the STEM subjects have “even better chances in the labour market” and pointed to “ample opportunities across the board”.
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Meanwhile, Lasch said that Germany offers 2300 study programmes in English. She also said that German knowledge remains important for those who want to enter the labour market in the country.
On whether German universities are interested after the University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations allowing international universities to set up campuses in India, Lasch said: “We are well aware of the regulations… German public universities are not seeing education as a business, and it is very expensive to set up a campus abroad…”
Based on visa numbers, The Indian Express reported in April that for the first time in four years, the number of Indian students heading to foreign universities has simultaneously declined across the top three destination countries — Canada, the USA, and the UK. This dip comes in the wake of measures by countries like Canada and the UK, including caps on student intake and restrictions on dependent visas, in response to concerns about housing pressures or the impact of a large international student population on public services.