Kasaragod: The Kerala Central university marked a record increase in the number of applications from foreign students. As per officials, 255 applications were received for undergraduate, postgraduate and research in various departments in the university. It was last year that the university had the highest number of applicants (15) from foreign nationals.

The university has received 117 applications for postgraduate courses, 64 applications for research and 74 applications for undergraduate courses this academic year. This is being checked by the respective departments. The highest number of students applied was from Afghanistan that counts 143 followed by Bangladesh, 22 and Ethiopia, 11. Students from 27 countries including Syria, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Iraq, Yemen, Tanzania, Nepal, Sudan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Indonesia also have applied for admission.

The highest number of applications came to the Department of Management Studies - 85. Public Health and Community Medicine 23, Computer Science 19, Commerce and International Business 16, English and Comparative Literature 13 and Economics 11 top the list. The Academic Council had earlier decided to increase the total number of seats for each course by an additional ten per cent for foreign students without affecting the existing seats that make it a total of about 220 seats.

Foreign students apply online through the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) under the Central Government. They can apply to five universities in India on a priority basis. The University Office of International Affairs (OIA) headed by Prof. Vincent Mathew, Director and Dr. Ravikumar Kanaparthi, Joint Director, is responsible for admissions.  Vice-Chancellor Prof. H. Venkateshwarlu is the Chairman of the Advisory Committee. ICCR Thiruvananthapuram Regional Director K. Ayyanar, teachers Prof. K. Arukumar, Dr. Chithra Manissery and Dr. Smitha Sudheer are members of the advisory committee.