Canada And Australia Attract Record Number Of Indian Students For Higher Education

New Delhi, 3rd August 2023: The Education Ministry revealed in a statement to the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that around 1.3 million Indian students pursued higher education in foreign institutions last year. Among the favoured destinations, Canada attracted the highest number of students with 1.83 lakh enrollments, closely followed by Australia with 1 lakh enrollments.

Subhas Sarkar, the Minister of State for Education, provided these figures in response to a parliamentary query about the number of students studying abroad and the government’s plans to support quality education within the country. According to data from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), approximately 1.3 million Indian students were enrolled in various foreign courses in 2022. However, the Ministry of Education doesn’t maintain records on the expenses incurred by these students while studying abroad.

The top countries for Indian students pursuing higher education last year were as follows: Canada (1,83,310), Australia (1,00,009), Germany (34,864), Georgia (14,000), France (10,003), Bangladesh (9,308), Armenia (8,015), China (6,436), Iran (2,050), among others.

In response to another question posed by DMK MP R Girirajan, Sarkar mentioned that the government had allowed world-class foreign universities and institutions to operate in Gujarat’s GIFT City. These institutions offer courses in financial management, fintech, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics without domestic regulations, except those imposed by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). The aim is to provide access to high-quality human resources for financial services and technology.

Additionally, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the higher education regulator in India, has introduced the UGCs Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Higher Education Institutions to facilitate Twinning Programmes, Joint Degrees, and Dual Degrees with foreign higher educational institutions (FHEIs).

Since 2017, the World Class Institutions Scheme has been in place to enable higher education institutions in India to access affordable world-class academic and research facilities. The scheme identifies 10 institutions each from the public and private sectors to be granted the status of ‘Institution of Eminence’ (IoE). So far, 12 institutions, including eight public and four private ones, have been designated as IoEs. The government aims to retain students graduating from premier educational institutions within the country and also provide attractive educational and research opportunities to non-resident Indians within India. To foster the research ecosystem, research parks have been approved for various IITs and IISc.