Mumbai : After two years of massive disruption to their plans, Indian students are set to flock to foreign universities in even greater numbers this year, aided by the easing of visa rules and mobility restrictions.
Edtech companies predict that the number of Indian students going to the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Europe will not only return to pre-pandemic numbers but, in some cases, will increase manifold.
The biggest beneficiary could be the UK, which is expected to see a nearly 600% increase in Indian students this year as compared to 2019. Visa applications and student loans to Australia have also increased, with borders now open.
University admissions platform LeverageEdu expects a total of 250,000 students to visit the UK this year, compared to around 36,000 in 2019. and 75,000 in 2020.
“According to government data, we saw the influx of international students in Canada and the US dropping significantly in 2020 with the pandemic. However, interest in Canada has picked up again, and early signs suggest a similar rebound in the US,” said Karun Kandoi, general manager and head of India operations at edtech platform ApplyBoard.
“The UK has been able to resist the pandemic-related decline according to the data available to us at this time.”
According to ApplyBoard, there has been a 52% increase in the number of Indian students in the UK between the 2019/20 and 2020/21 academic years. LeverageEdu estimates that 150,000 students will go to Australia, compared to 180,000 in 2019 and 150,000 in 2018.
Changes in work and study permits have been a factor.
ApplyBoard cites Canada’s Post Graduate Work Permit Program (PGWPP), which gives students who have graduated from a specified educational institution (DLI) the opportunity to live and work in Canada post-graduation .
“There has been an increase in program interest from Indian students over the past five years, culminating in over 70,000 PGWPP approvals in 2020,” it said.
Business management and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs are the most sought after courses for outside students. Easy loans, low collateral and hybrid programs where students can study online and offline have made obtaining a foreign degree more attractive.
“There will be a 3x growth in the number of students going to the US and Canada,” said Ashwani Kumar, general manager (India) and vice president, fintech company MPower Financing. Seeing the increase in clients, the firm doubled its loan amount option to $100,000. Year.
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