More than 1.3 million Indians went abroad for higher education during 2017-2022, the Ministry of Education told Rajya Sabha last month. The information was shared by Subhas Sarkar, the Minister of State for Education. Mr Sarkar shared data on the number of students who enrolled in foreign universities or colleges, as received from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in response to a question in the Upper House of Parliament.

“As per MEA, there are approximately 1.3 million Indian students who are studying abroad in various courses for the year 2022. However, the Ministry of Education does not maintain any data regarding the expenditure incurred by Indian students pursuing higher studies in foreign countries,” said Mr Sarkar in a written response.

Mr Sarkar said that the US remains the most preferred destination for Indian students. According to the data, 4,65,791 students went to United States, followed by Canada with 1,83,310 students, UAE (1,64,000), Australia (1,00,009), UK (55,465), Saudi Arabia (65,800), Qatar (46,000), Germany (34,864), Georgia (14,000), France (10,003), Bangladesh (9,308), Armenia (8,015) and China (6,436) among others.

Mr Sarkar was responding to a question raised by DMK MP R Girirajan on the number of students pursuing higher education in foreign countries and if the government has a plan to cater to students’ needs to pursue quality education in the country itself.

He said, “As announced in last year’s budget proposal, world-class foreign universities and institutions have been permitted in the GIFT City, Gujarat (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) to offer courses in financial management, fintech, science, technology, engineering and mathematics free from domestic regulations, except those by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to facilitate the availability of high-end human resources for financial services and technology.”