5 reasons why more Indian students are opting for overseas education

Radhika Iyer secured over 95% in the Class XII exams and yet couldn’t find admission on a merit seat for medicine in any Indian college. Instead of paying huge fees for a management quota her parents found her a reputed university in Australia.
Kaushik Gupta worked in TCS for three years post his BE from a private college. Frustrated with long working hours that stretched till midnight, he decided to quit his job to pursue an MS programme in Power Systems and Distribution from Colorado State University.
In a study done by IIM Bangalore there has been a fivefold increase in the number of students going abroad for education. The US Council of Graduate Schools too confirms the same as it reports a 25% increase in student numbers in 2013-14 as compared to the year before.

Reasons for departure

a) Few institutes of excellence: At the undergraduate level there are few prestigious institutes and a sizeable reservation quota ensures that even the brightest students are left with little options if they miss the IIT and REC boats. Post graduate students somehow manage to find a place in some of the top-quality institutes in subjects like social sciences, humanities, energy, biotechnology and software programming. Even though India has the third largest education system in the world there is no Indian university that figures in the top rankings of world’s best 200 universities.

b) Overseas degrees are valued more even by domestic employers: There are a lot of advantages of studying abroad from broadening one’s horizons by working with different ethnic races to being sensitive about cross-cultural differences. Even in the host country any employer would prefer those students who have worked in their country for employment in the student’s native country.

c) Declining cost of overseas education: While master’s degrees can be expensive in the U.S., the U.K., doctorates programmes are affordable to middle class incomes of Indian parents for there is a probability of their wards securing a research or teaching fellowship or assistantship that pays for most of the costs.

d) Course flexibility: Unlike Indian institutions where students are put on a strict curriculum, institutions abroad offer students the benefit of choosing a combination of subjects. There are more electives and dual programmes for a student to accommodate his/her aptitude besides specializing in a major.

Not only are overseas programmes and departments more prestigious, they offer better facilities, laboratories and a better work culture overall. Top faculty members are easily accessible and there is little red-tapism to stifle any creative idea or innovation.

Step toward emigration

e) The perks: Studying abroad is often seen as the first step toward emigration. Quite naturally, students will not admit this, but statistics show that Indian students choose to stay in the U.S. following the completion of doctoral degrees for employment. Better salaries, facilities for research works, appreciation and lifestyle along with opportunities for working in cutting-edge domains seem too attractive to miss out on.

The success stories of Indra Nooyi, Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai are an inspiration to the students and teach us an important lesson: If you are good enough then there is no glass ceiling to refrain you from reaching the top. This is a generation of Indians who believe there is no stopping them if they are talented enough.

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