COVID or not, more than 18 lakh Indian students are predicted to study abroad by the year 2024

As the burden of the pandemic eases in several parts of the world and international borders reopen, studying abroad is predicted to grow in the coming years — over 18 lakh Indian students are expected to opt for foreign universities by 2024.

According to the report by Bengaluru-based market research firm RedSeer, the demand for studying abroad is increasing along with the outflow and student expenditure is soaring to a point that it is likely to touch $75-85 billion by 2024.

"We are bullish about this segment's growth in the coming years. Our research shows that the total number of Indian students studying abroad will stand at around 18 lakh by 2024," said Abhishek Gupta, engagement manager at RedSeer.

Nearly 7,00,000 students applied to study abroad in 2019. "In 2019 alone, around 420k students headed out but the total number of applicants was around 1.7 times. This colossal increase is due to factors like rise in GDP in the past two decades leading to more consumption and awareness about education abroad," Gupta mentioned.

The growth in the outflow rates had outpaced domestic student growth by six times between the year 2016 to 2019. This shows a massive demand that this segment is witnessing.  "Our research shows that currently, 770k Indian students are studying abroad from 440K in 2016 which is a 20 per cent growth. On the other hand, the growth in the domestic region has been merely 3 per cent when compared to the demand for education abroad," the analyst informed.

With inputs from PTI
Edited by Eshan Kalyanikar