"There is a growing interest among foreign students about Ayurveda as a medical science. Now they realize its importance for the treatment of various diseases. Every year we receive inquiries from foreign students about the course.

To cater to this growing demand, we have decided to start the certificate course in three countries," said vice-chancellor of TMV Deepak Tilak. The courses run by the department of Ayurveda in TMV covers both preventive medicine and positive health. There are certificate courses in yoga also. This year around 400 students completed certificates courses -- of six month and one-year duration.

"We have been accommodating four-to-five foreign students in each batch over the last five years. As we have only a limited quota for foreign students, we are unable to keep up with the growing demand from abroad. In the last two years we have been thinking of having tie-ups with the foreign universities to fulfill this demand," said Umesh Keskar, registrar of TMV.

As the enquiries are more from the UK, Germany and Italy, TMV has been in talks with some of the institutions there and thereafter it was decided that to start the course in these three countries initially. "There is no plan to start our campus in these countries, but we will enter into MoUs with some of the institutes there. We are finalising details of the MoU,” Keskar said.