Overseas education still a big hit, while spending drops

While news reports suggest education-related overseas expenditure saw a drop by 20%, education consultants say numbers of students going abroad remains steady

Overseas education is still a big hit, while overall spending may be down. While news reports suggest that education-related overseas expenditure saw a drop by 20%, according to data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), education consultants say numbers of students going abroad remains steady.

A senior education consultant based out of New Delhi said that while figures from RBI would show spends made, the number of scholarships awarded to Indian students have also gone up. "This would explain the overall quantum of spends on education abroad coming down. While the rupee also has a role to play, there is no trend that shows Indians going abroad to study has dropped," he said.

In fact, data from agencies that track education applicants has also seen India move up. According to 2015 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, the number of international students at U S colleges and universities had the highest rate of growth in 35 years, increasing by 10% to a record high of 9,74,926 students in the 2014/15 academic year. 

In 2014/15, there were 88,874 more international students enrolled in the US higher education compared to the previous year. India, China and Brazil account for most of the growth in international students on US campuses. While China remains the top country of origin of international students in the US, increasing by 11% to 3,04,040, India’s growth outpaced China’s this year, with students from India increasing by 29.4% to a record high of 1,32,888. This is the highest rate of growth for Indian students in the history of the Open Doors project, which dates back to 1954/55. 

The last time India grew at a comparable rate (29.1) was in 2000/01 when the number of students from India exceeded 50,000 for the first time. In 2014/15, China and India together accounted for 67% of the increase in international students, and they now constitute nearly 45% of the total number of international students in the US higher education.

Further, consultants said that US, Germany, Canada, Australia and Germany, among others, remained the most popular for Indian students. Only United Kingdom has seen a drop in Indian students, which is primarily due to tightening of immigration laws.