Even as Indian students make a beeline for foreign universities, the number of foreign students coming to India for higher studies is yet to make a proportional leap.
According to Bureau of Immigration (BoI) statistics, only 40,431 foreign students came to India in 2023 for higher studies, while the number of Indian students who went abroad for studies was 7.65 lakh (up to October 2023). In 2022, the number of foreign students who reached India was 31,910 and 22,159 in 2021.
The number of Indian students who went abroad was 7.50 lakh in 2022 and 4.44 lakh in 2021. Speaking to The Hindu, Sabu Joseph, Director, Centre for Global Academics at Kerala University, says there has been an uptick in foreign students visiting India, especially south India, in recent times. However, their numbers cannot be equated or compared with the number of Indian students who go abroad for higher studies. Last academic year, there were around 160 foreign students at Kerala University, with the majority from African countries.
If students from West Asian countries such as Iran and Iraq had dominated this segment in the past, now there is a clear shift towards Africa. Students from around 25 African countries are pursuing higher studies here now, says Mr. Joseph.
“The prospect of enrolling for work soon after studies is one of the reasons catalysing the exodus of Indian students to foreign countries. We also have to scale up our infrastructure facilities along with academic standards to attract more foreign students to India,” he says.
Though the global exposure of Kerala is relatively higher than that of other States, there are more students from States such as Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi pursuing higher studies abroad than from Kerala, according to data with the Ministry of External Affairs.
The United States (4.65 lakh) and Canada (1.83 lakh) are the two major countries that attract Indian students for higher studies, followed by Australia (1 lakh), UAE (1.64 lakh), and the United Kingdom (0.55 lakh), according to the estimated data of Indian students studying abroad in 2022.
