US Ambassador David Mulford on Thursday expressed concern that aspiring Fulbright scholars wanting to visit India are having problems in getting their projects cleared and visas issued by Indian authorities.
"There is a great deal of difficulty in India with Fulbright scholarships. It is unusually difficult for US students to get their programmes cleared in India and visas issued," Mulford told a round-table discussion in Kolkata on Thursday evening on 'US-India Cooperation in Education'.
Pointing out that 94 teachers and students intending to do Fulbright programmes in India were awaiting visa clearance, he said, "Some of the programmes are rejected without reason. The programme is already delayed and the commitment is to end in December. What happens to them after that?"
There weren't as much opportunities for US students to visit India as there were for visiting Europe or even China, Mulford said.
"We are having difficulty figuring out how to encourage students to visit India. This is paradoxical when US-India relations are going to new heights," he added.
Stating that there were 1,700 US students currently in India, Mulford said people in his country were waking up to India's growing importance.
Representatives of Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, Rabindra Bharati University, IISWBM, Visva-Bharati and St Xavier's College informed the envoy about their institutions' tie-up projects with US universities.
Mulford said instead of 'one-off' tie-ups, the Indian universities should consider joint venture possibilities with their US counterparts.
