press Release: Indian Mission in Germany reaches out to Indian Students
Germany is becoming a major attraction for Indian students. The numbers of Indian students have been growing steadily for the last six years and have tripled between 2010 and 2016. They have added a significant diversity to the Indian Diaspora in Germany. Most Indian students are involved in research in scientific and technological aspects and participate in the high standards of German education in these sectors.
In order to facilitate the Indian students, ease their transition as well as to engage them and keep them abreast of opportunities and events in India, the Embassy of India in Berlin initiated the Indian Students Germany (ISG) portal: www.indianstudentsgermany.org. The portal essentially strides four points:
- Serve as an extended arm of the mission to reach out to the Indian students
- Bring the different student organisations in Germany under one umbrella
- Provide information to Indian students studying/aspiring-to-study in Germany
- Disseminate information on job opportunities, internships, cultural events,scholarships, accommodation, visa and student related issues.
Through the Cultural Wing of the Embassy of India, support is also given to some Indian Student’s Association to mark Indian festivals from time to time.
During recent months, the platform has created a robust network of Indian students and student associations across Germany who interact and help each other solve most of the day to day problems. In addition to the above:
- Over 500 student queries were directly answered through FB and emails
- A webinar with Indian students associations was held on 18 November 2016 to interact with the student community
- A workshop on CV preparation to help Indian students apply for jobs/internships in Germany was conducted at Hannover
- A Sarojini Naidu Award for best student association was constituted.
The ISG platform now has 16 student Associations and more than 2600 students registered on the database. The Embassy has raised various social media outreach programmes directly through its Consulates in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich and in contact with various universities to increase the interface of Indian students and researchers with the portal.
The Embassy’s strenuous efforts with the German Government have led to the German authorities continuing the extended visa facility of 180 days for Indian and other students coming to Germany since last year. This was to expire on December 31 but after considerable deliberations, this facility has been continued to facilitate the settling down process by Indian students among others.
