68% rise in students going abroad in 2022; why Indians going abroad for higher education?

The Education Ministry has informed the Parliament that the number of Indian students who went overseas for higher education reached a six-year high in 2022 at 750,365. The results showed that compared to 4,44,553 students travelling abroad in 2021, the number of students travelling abroad has increased significantly by 68 per cent.

Studying abroad has become increasingly popular among students, increasing from 4,54,009 in 2017 to 5,17,998 in 2018 and 5,86,337 in 2019. The Covid-19 epidemic, according to ministry data, caused the number to decrease by 50 per cent, to 259,655 in 2020.

Sumit Rai, founder and CEO of EUGateway (a career consulting and higher education management and recruitment company) said that the interest in international education and degrees have seen renewed interest post Covid restrictions and more and more Indian students are opting for in person campus classes rather than pure online or even hybrid classes.

"Very soon this figure will pass the pre-COVID levels enrolment in foreign universities," Rai said, adding that some universities in the US and other countries have reported an increase in applications from Indian students for the upcoming academic year. 

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The same reports are coming from Australia, UK and other European countries, especially Germany & France. Recently, India and Australia signed a Framework Mechanism for Mutual Recognition of Qualifications that will help ease the mobility of students and professionals between the two countries.

Rai said that more students are going abroad as they get better job opportunities, higher salary and migration and also have better understanding of the financial implication they will have on their pockets.

"The build up of expectations from the kids regarding the future - career, finance, family and expectation of support back. This last advice is a hard hitting fact, but the sooner parents realize this, the better the parents will be prepared and the less will be the disappointment in terms of expecting back from their kids," the founder of EUGateway, which helps students and graduates to pick education careers abroad, said.

EUGateway differentiates itself by offering personalized counseling services, extensive network, industry expertise and value added services that could help students feel more supported and make their study abroad experience more seamless.

According to data from the Ministry of External Affairs, in the year 2019, a total of 753,000 Indian students were studying abroad, which was an increase of around 10 percent from the previous year. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a significant decline in the number of Indian students going abroad for higher education in 2020.