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India requires structural reforms in higher education to stop the phenomena of the increasing flow of students to international destinations leading to brain drain and outward remittances, the Economic Survey 2025, 26 stated.

India is the world's largest source country of international students, the survey pointed out, with 28 Indian students going abroad for every international student coming to India.

The number of Indians studying overseas has gone up from 685, 000 in 2016 to more than 1. 8 million by 2025, it stated.

On the other hand, students coming to India rose from less than 7, 000 in 2000, 01 to around 49, 000 in 2020, which is only about 0. 10 per cent of the total higher education enrolments.

This is very much below the leading host countries, where international students make 10 to 40 per cent of total students.

Restoring the balance, yearly outward remittance under the studying abroad component has reached $3. 4 billion in FY24, with Indian students mostly being concentrated in a few host countries, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Similarly, annual outward remittance under the ‘studies abroad’ component has increased to $3.4 billion in FY24, with Indian students highly concentrated in a small group of host countries, including Canada, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia. The attractiveness of these countries is being driven by perceived quality, work rights, migration pathways, and strong branding, the survey highlighted and suggested that countermeasures were required. These comprise, among other measures, forcefully marketing India as a prime global education center by using the National Education Policy (NEP) and updated University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines to allow foreign branch campuses, mutual recognition of qualifications, and student exchange programmes.

Besides, the "Study in India" campaign may also utilize the quality markers like the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), and not only the global rankings, to present a compelling case for foreign students.

The initiative wants to leverage India's STEM education and innovation capacities to work with its time tested strengths in Ayurveda, philosophy, and classical arts to present to the Global South a compelling, affordable option.

The suggestion comes when India has been finding it hard to seize a large portion of the international student market although the number of mobile students globally has increased from 2.2 million in 2001 to 6.9 million in 2022. Among the BRICS bloc as well, more than 80 per cent of inbound mobility is accounted for by Russia and China, whereas India's share is still at single digits level, it added.

Continuing to be a main destination in South Asia, India attracted four, fifths of the students from Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, however, the country's regional share has been decreasing since 2011, the report states.

The report also mentioned that due to the rising competition from other regional hubs, India's value proposition must be updated if the country wants to stay attractive to its neighbors.

This hardly means program diversification beyond full degrees, e.g. summer schools, semester, abroad modules, heritage and philosophy tracks, yoga and Ayurveda certificates, and innovation or rural, immersion labs.

“These can be bundled with tourism circuits and tailored for BRICS and wider Global South partners,” the survey said.

The survey also highlighted the success of the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme, which has trained over 200,000 individuals from 160 countries. It argued that by building an ecosystem that offers research and education of global standards at affordable costs, India can move beyond simple influence to create generational goodwill.

The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) will most likely be the authority to announce the results of the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) January 2026 next. It has not been given the exact date, but some media outlets are saying that the results will be released by mid February 2026.

After the declaration of the results, candidates will be able to check their results through the NBEMS' official website natboard.edu.in by providing their login credentials.

FMGE is an examination mandatory for Indian citizens and foreign nationals who have obtained their primary medical education outside India and who wish to get licensed for medical practice in India. The FMGE January 2026 computer based test was taken by a huge number of candidates and the test was conducted at different centres in India.

WHAT WILL THE FMGE RESULT SHOW

The FMGE scorecard for January 2026 will feature information such as the candidate's qualifying status, marks obtained out of the total and rank details. Candidates passing the test will be allowed to start the registration formalities to get the license to practice medicine in India.

NBEMS has directed the candidates to depend only on the updates and notifications made public on its website since no date for the declaration of the result has been confirmed yet.

HOW TO CHECK FMGE JANUARY 2026 RESULT

After the declaration of the results, the candidates may follow these steps:

Go to the official website: natboard.edu.in

Select the FMGE January 2026 result link

Log in using registered credentials

View, download and save the result for future reference

Candidates are advised to keep a printed copy of the result for counselling and documentation purposes.

WHY FMGE IS IMPORTANT

FMGE serves as a qualifying examination to ensure that foreign-trained medical graduates meet the standards prescribed by Indian medical authorities.

Clearing the exam confirms eligibility for medical registration in India, subject to further verification and procedural requirements.

Texas A&M University has decided to cancel a graduate level ethics course only three days after the semester started. The university expressed that a major concern for them was whether the class was fully compliant with the newly revised very detailed standards for race, gender, and sexuality discussion in the classrooms.

The move initiated a discussion on academic freedom, the syllabus review process, and the consequences of policy changes for higher education in Texas.

The problem with the graduate course was that it was the first session of the class when the administration came to stop it, thus saying the decision was different from other cases when the classes were changed or checked before the term started.

Why the course was cancelled

The course Ethics and Public Policy (PSAA 642) was held by Prof. Leonard Bright at the Bush School of Government and Public Service. In a campus wide email sent by Bush School Dean John Sherman on Wednesday, he said the cancellation was a requirement of the Texas A&M system policy.

Sherman explained in the email that Bright didn't supply enough details on how topics like race, gender or similar would be handled in the class, even though the administration kept requesting this. Based on the information given, the institution said that it was not able to ascertain if the course was in line with the policy which forbids advocacy of race or gender ideology in classes unless they are specially exempted.

Classes with these themes must be reviewed and approved by the highest university authorities. A university spokesperson told AP News that departments have until Friday to send in courses for review and that the final decisions are expected before the January 28 add, drop deadline.

Professor disputes university’s claim

Professor Bright has challenged the university’s explanation. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, he said he clearly informed administrators that issues of race, gender, and sexuality would arise throughout the course rather than being limited to specific lectures.

“I told them it was going to come up every day,” Bright said, adding that discussions, case studies, and readings naturally involve these themes in ethics and public policy. “There is no one day. That’s how this class works.”

Bright also said students were not required to agree with his views and that the course encouraged discussion rather than advocacy.

What the course covered

According to the syllabus that AP News had a look at, this class discussed the impact that race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and other social identities have on public policy, as well as the ethical obligations of public servants.

The formatting showed that teachers combined social equity and justice in one week of the public administration curriculum. They mentioned articles on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), critical race theory, and the philosopher John Rawls' A Theory of Justice.

Bright said this was the only ethics class offered at the Bush School during that semester.

Impact on students

Initially, 10 students were enrolled in the course. After Bright informed the class that the course was under administrative review and could be canceled, two students chose to move to another class. The university has said it is assisting the remaining students in finding alternative courses.

University’s position on academic freedom

In his email, Dean Sherman said Bright’s course was one of two Bush School classes requiring exemptions from the vice provost of academic affairs. In the other case, administrators were able to seek approval because the syllabus contained sufficient detail, allowing that course to continue.

“I take no pleasure in canceling a course,” Sherman wrote, according to AP News. “I want us to continue to teach hard topics and engage with controversial issues. But I also expect us to follow the approval process. Transparency does not equal censorship.”

Emails obtained by The Texas Tribune show Bright was not asked to remove or revise any content before the course was canceled.

Broader impact across Texas campuses

The cancellation comes amid wider changes across Texas higher education. Last week, the dean of Texas A&M’s College of Arts and Sciences told faculty that around 200 courses could be affected by the new policy. In a separate case, a philosophy professor said he was asked to remove Plato readings related to race and gender or face reassignment, a claim the university later clarified by saying Plato himself was not banned.

Bright, who has taught the ethics course since 2018, is also president of the Texas A&M chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which has publicly opposed the policy.

Background of the policy

As reported by AP News, the policy was approved by the Texas A&M Board of Regents last year following backlash over a classroom discussion on gender identity that was secretly recorded and circulated online. The incident led to criticism from conservative activists and lawmakers and prompted reviews of course materials throughout several public university systems in Texas, including Texas Tech.

The topic of race, gender, or sexuality in college classrooms is not legally banned by either state or federal laws. However, Texas law requires universities to post their syllabi online. To address the recent controversies, a few institutions have added extra layers of administrative scrutiny for particular courses.

According to the university authorities, the resolution of course approval and cancellation issues will be done before the add, drop period ends, and there may be hundreds of courses that will be affected by the new regulations.

One hand reaches out, the phone is angled towards the sky to get the weakest signal, one bar, two bars, any signal at all. Near the high iron fence that separates Iran and Iraq, Indian students congregate around their devices, typing very fast to send messages to their worried parents who are so far away, thousands of kilometers. Some of them are walking up and down nervously, their voices are tense and rapid, and their eyes are glued to their phones as if to the only brief, unreliable moments of connectivity.

With internet services suspended across large swathes of Iran and an 8 pm curfew clearing streets in several cities, Indians, many of them students from Jammu and Kashmir enrolled at universities near the Iraqi border, were left dependent on such patchy connectivity, said Mohammad Momin Khan, vice-president of the J&K All India Medical Students Association, according to a report by TOI.

Khan, who has been coordinating with both students and parents, said a WhatsApp group was set up to account for those in Iran and circulate verified updates. “Parents were panicking because they had no direct way to contact their children. The group helped reassure families that the students were safe.”

Around 9, 000 Indians are living in Iran, mostly students. Of these, some 2, 000 from Jammu and Kashmir are pursuing medical studies.

Due to the political turmoil and fear of violence, many educational institutions in different areas have been closed and exams have beenIndianStudentsInIran postponed. So, on top of the disruption to their academic schedules, students also have to worry about their safety. The first group of Indian students and pilgrims were brought by the commercial flights which arrived at Delhi early Saturday morning. 

Still, the combination of protests, internet shutdowns, curfews and closure of campuses created a feeling of insecurity. Many pointed out that their return was more due to the general uncertainty which is the bigger problem, rather than an immediate threat to their lives.

It was announced by the Indian embassy in Tehran that formal evacuation operations are still suspended while the officials are continuously evaluating the situation.

According to the association, the embassy officials are communicating with the students in Iran and have given them their word they will be informed through official channels if an evacuation is required.

Several students who have come back from Iran told that the conditions there are normal and not as serious as it is being shown on social media. They emphasized that they did not see any protests and they were completely safe during their stay there.

Students mainly from medical and professional courses in Iran told the journalists that they learned about the protests through news and social media but the daily life in the cities where they lived was continuing without any disturbances. On the other hand, they said that the internet was not working, and there was no presence of fear either on the campuses or in the surrounding areas.

Several students stated that a large number of their classmates and fellow Indian students preferred to stay back in Iran and did not opt for

return, as academic activities were continuing normally. “We only heard about protests but never saw anything with our own eyes,” some of the returned students said, adding that social media narratives appeared exaggerated and misleading.

Parents of the returning students expressed relief over the safe arrival of their children and extended gratitude to the All-India Medical Students Association for its coordination and support during the process. They particularly thanked Dr Mohammad Moomin Khan, Vice President of AIMSA, for what they described as tireless efforts to ensure the students’ safe return.

“We are really thankful to AIMSA, especially Dr Mohammad Moomin Khan, who made every possible effort so that our children could return home safely,” parents said.

The students maintained that there was no panic on the ground in Iran and urged people to rely on verified information rather than unconfirmed social media content, which they said often amplifies fear without reflecting reality.

The Indian government will roll out a new PM Research Chair scheme to attract 120 global Indian scientists and researchers back to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) over the next five years. Discussed during an IIT council meeting, this move aims to enhance the country's higher education and research ecosystem by involving top Indian-origin talent in the major sectors.

Objectives of the PM Research Chair Scheme

The PM Research Chair scheme has conferred on the research fellows the liberty to select their own research topic out of 14 themes of national importance. The Chair post holders will be Research fellows, Senior Research Fellows and Research Chairs. This will be a follow, up to the existing scheme of research chairs and will expand the scope of activities that research chairs can do. A Department of Education spokesman further revealed that the scheme is targeted at strengthening the research capacity of institutions, stimulating innovation, and thus, raising India's position on the world map in science and technology by the ministry of education.

Strategic Importance

The IIT Council, which is the highest coordinating body for the IITs, was informed about the proposal at its meeting held in August last year. It is seen as a strategic move to tap the global talent pool of Indian origin and to solve problems in India's higher education system like a limited number of specialisations and lack of internship opportunities. The Council believes that this scheme will attract top researchers and thus improve the research environment in IITs.

Supporting Measures and Recommendations

Besides the PM Research Chair initiative, the IIT Council has also suggested that a comprehensive survey be undertaken in all the 23 IITs to evaluate the alumni outcomes and the socioeconomic impact of the graduates from the 2013, 2014, and 2015 batches. Along with the survey, which will investigate the primary reasons for IIT graduates to study abroad, the Council has also proposed reforms in the MTech and PhD programmes such as increasing the number of industry internships and making specialisation more accessible. The implementation of these recommendations will be under the aegis of IIT Bombay.

Earlier, the Council discussed the necessity of updating MTech and PhD programmes to meet the requirements of the industry more closely. Internships are to be made a compulsory part of the MTech curriculum, which is one of the important changes that could increase the student intake in these programmes, as per the Council's suggestion.

Looking Ahead

The Prime Minister Research Visit, IIT Council has expressed its confidence that the scheme can bring significant changes in research capabilities of India. Along with the reforms that have been proposed, this initiative is a crucial step towards the betterment of the academic and research environment in India.