50% rise in students going abroad for higher studies: MoS Education

In a reply to a question posed in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Union Minister of State for Education, Dr Subhas Sarkar, detailed that India saw a nearly 50% rise in the number of students flying abroad for higher studies in the past five years from 2018-22.

Wherein 2018 saw 5,17,998 students relocating outside of India for higher studies, the number shot up to 7,50,365 in the past year, 2022. While initially rising to 5.86 lakh in 2019, the upsurge was brought to a halt in 2020 when India saw 2,59,655 students flying abroad at the peak of the pandemic.

The number recovered quickly, however, with 4,44,553 students flying abroad in 2021, and 2022 witnessing a nearly 50% rise since 2018, Minister Sarkar detailed in a reply to MP Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh, MP Dinesh Chandra Yadav, and MP Santosh Kumar.

Dr Sarkar emphasised, however, that the Ministry does not maintain an index of Indians going abroad for education purposes, and that the statistics are derived either by verbal disclosure during arrivals or by the type of visas issued by the host countries to the immigrants.