10-15% rise in students going abroad for education

INDORE: Campuses in the West have for long been attracting youth in India and Indoreans too are in the race. While studying in famous institutes of US is still a dream of many since past several years, better opportunities in Canada, Australia and New Zealand are attracting youth for the last couple of years. In the last five years, there is a rise of 200-250 students moving abroad. According to city-based experts, who cater to the need of students who wish to go abroad, availability of scholarship, work permit followed by citizenship are encouraging students to move to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Nitin Goel, founder and director, Indian Institute of Careers and Higher Education (IICHE) said, "Though most of the students still prefer US to study under graduate and post graduate courses, of late Canada followed by Australia and New Zealand are attracting students from the city." He said that in last three years more number of students have started moving abroad for studying under graduate courses as there is consistent rise in number of students taking Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). However, going by the trend, it has come to fore that students have shelved their dream to study in UK because of costly education as well as stringent laws and unemployment. "Overall number of students going abroad from city is almost consistent since past few years but UK has witnessed downward trend mainly due to strict laws and non-availability of jobs," said Goel. As per the estimated figures, nearly 1,200 to 1,500 students make beeline for institutes abroad every year. Approximately, 700-800 students go to US for higher studies including UG, PG and PhD courses while 200-250 students choose UK. Though UK is still the second favourite destination of students, number of students moving to Canada, Australia and New Zealand has seen a rise with 50, 70 and 40 students respectively moving to these countries. According to a recent study conducted by one of the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), there has been a steady annual rise of 7% Indians travelling overseas for a degree. More than 53,000 Indians went abroad in 2000 and at the end of the decade, the count shot up to 1.9 lakh. Prashant Hemnani, founder and director of Globalizers, a coaching institute said, "There is 10-15% rise in number of students travelling abroad for higher education. Earlier, people used to worry about the cost of education but actually the cost is not high in comparison to the rewards that foreign education offers." Ashish Gaur, TNN October 23, 2012 http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-23/indore/34679789_1_steady-annual-rise-higher-studies-count-shot