The 3rd ASMA Annual Convention and Awards 2019 was held in Mumbai on September 16 and 17. The event bought together 200 delegates representing the academia, Indian edtech companies, government and edupreneurs to discuss digital transformation of the current academia while benchmarking Indian higher education institutions as a global destination for education.

The event was promoted by Afairs Exhibitions & Media, one of Asia’s leading education exhibition organiser in association with ASMA (Adoptation of Social Media in Academia). Pune-based FMA Digital launched the ASMA concept to lead the use of digital media in academia. Initiating the first-ever AFAIRS – ASMA Awards for ‘Internationalisation’, the event recognized 20 plus promising universities and colleges in India that are making significant and well-planned progress towards comprehensive ‘internationalization’ of their campus through innovative and creative approaches.

The criteria for selection of Indian institutions included having robust international student diversity, presence of foreign faculty members, on-going global collaborations and students and faculty exchange programmes. Some of the awardees included institutions like O P Jindal Global University, Symbiosis University, Sharda University, SRM Institute of Science & Technology, Vellore Institute of Technology and Acharya Institute.

India ranks 26th in the world in attracting foreign students but has the second largest number of students (after China) seeking education abroad. We need to balance this intake with the number going out if we are to internationalise our universities and institutions. India’s image as an education destination has to be pepped up, which has to be a collaborative effort of the government of India, foreign alliances with top universities and the presence of international faculty to bring in best practices. We need to put into place a long term model based on not just private scholarships but also government scholarships for incoming students, said Sanjeev Bolia, founder and managing director, Afairs Exhibitions & Media while speaking about the means to improve India’s competitive advantage in the global education market.