Rupee fall against dollar to hit abroad study plans? Let's find out

A falling rupee is set to hit Indian students who wish to pursue education abroad, however, education companies that help students have advised them to negotiate exchange rates and opt for trusted partners while taking loans.

The Indian rupee fell to its lowest against the US dollar on Tuesday, July 19, breaching the 80-mark for the first time. The Indian rupee has depreciated about seven per cent against the US dollar since the beginning of 2022. However, students have been flocking to educational institutions abroad despite this.

Some say that the rupee depreciation won’t affect them. “When we were applying for a loan, we had to consider the fact that the amount of rupees we spend for one dollar will go up so it doesn’t really affect us now,” said Snigdha Voruganti, who wishes to pursue corporate communication in the United States. She still prefers to study abroad despite it being expensive as there are better research opportunities there. 

Similarly, Harshita Reddy, who wishes to go to Missouri in the United States, said that it will be difficult for students who come from a middle or lower-middle class background to afford the rising expenses. “But we hope that we will start working soon after education so we can cover up what ever we invested,” she said.

However, some students are worried that their expenses might increase. “This is definitely not a good news especially for students. Everything will get expensive now including living and traveling expenses,” said C Nitika Reddy. However, we have to compromise on the expenses aspect because we don’t have many opportunities in terms of courses and jobs here, she said. 

Another student, Nikita Kanaparthi, who will leave for the United States in September this year, said that, “Previously, tuition fee would have been around Rs 25 lakhs but now its 50 lakhs.” However, she said that it is worth the investment because of the exposure one gets primarily. 

Companies that help Indian students with abroad education related issues have said that some students might favour Tier II institutions instead of the costly Tier I colleges. “The interest rate for education loans has increased by 200 basis points by all private and nationalised banks in the last two months. Flight tickets are also double the regular rate,” said Ashish Fernando, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of iSchoolConnect. 

However, some companies say that it might be too late for students to have these concerns now. “The rupee falling is a phenomenon that started three to four months ago but the college admission process started almost a year ago,” said Amit Singh, Founder, UniScholarz and UniCreds. He also said that the number of students going abroad has been increasing over the past few years in most countries. “But if the inflation does continue like this, then students will ask this question and have these concerns in the coming time,” he added. 

Students have been advised to take loans from the country of origin as the fluctuation in the exchange rate will not affect repayment amount, as stated by Sayantan Biswas, Co-Founder, UniCreds.