THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala consistently featured among the top ten states sending students abroad between 2016 and 2020, according to a NITI Aayog report. The state improved its position from eighth to seventh in the country during the period, showed the report “Internalisation of Higher Education in India – Prospects, Potential and Policy Recommendations” released on Monday.

India is the largest source of international students with 13.35 lakh persons pursuing studies overseas in 2024. The top five destinations for Indian students in 2024 were Canada (4.27 lakh), the USA (3.37 lakh), the UK (1.85 lakh), Australia (1.22 lakh) and Germany (43,000). The first three countries together hosted 8.5 lakh Indian students who spent `2.9 lakh crore for studies. The report had state-wise details of outbound students for three years – 2016, 2018 and 2020. Andhra Pradesh was the leading source of outbound students for all the three years.

Kerala was in the eighth position in 2016 and 2018 and improved to seventh in 2020. The number of students from the state rose from 18,428 in 2016 to 26,456 in 2018 before declining sharply to 15,277 in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic.

Globally, international student mobility had declined from 66 to 64 lakh owing to Covid travel restrictions and campus closures during 2020-2021.

Inbound students

Karnataka was the top destination for international students between 2012 and 2022, showed a state-wise overview in the report. Kerala did not find place among the top ten during that period. However, the report’s projection of a huge increase in the number of inbound students – one lakh by 2030 and up to 1.1 million by 2047 – is promising for the state.

TNIE had earlier reported about the surge in the number of foreign applicants to Kerala’s top universities. The number of applicants to Kerala University had increased from 1,100 in 2021-22 to 2,620 in 2020-26, MGU from 502 to 982 and Cusat from 603 to 1,700, according to the report.

Kerala is taking big efforts to become a top destination for foreign students, said Prof Rajan Gurukkal, vice-chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council. The state has a partnership with University of Michigan-Flint to boost internationalisation of the state’s higher education sector.

The Study in Kerala programme and Scholar Connect App are the other initiatives. “General courses offered by the state universities are already open for foreign students. A proposal to allow foreign student enrolment for professional courses, including medical education, is being actively considered,” he told TNIE.

A unique feature of Kerala’s medical education is the immense scope for bedside learning, the hands-on teaching method in medical education, he added.

The council is also taking care of outbound students. Based on its recommendation, the state government is preparing a draft legislation to regulate agencies facilitating overseas education, he said.