US Ambassador to India Nancy J Powell on Tuesday said that the students from her country do not feel safe in pursuing their higher education in India due to rising number of rape cases and insecure accommodation facilities.
“Parents doubt the academic credits of India. As you can notice, safety for our women students is very important in India. Americans need separate dormitories and hostel accommodation. Rape cases of US women students are increasing in India,” she said in a programme at Xavier Institute of Social Services (XISS) here.
Adding further she said, “These are basically the main reasons on why American students are coming India in less numbers."
Supporting her words, Kolkata-based US Consul General Helen laFave who accompanied Powell later told The Pioneer, "Whatever Powell spoke on the safety issue is my opinion as well."
According to Powell, China too is not much preferred by US students for higher education due to the language understanding hurdle.
"Right now there are about one lakh Indian students studying in USA. On the contrary, there are only 4600 US students studying in India. We need to promote this Indian higher education scopes among our students," she said.