Indian students now heading to Europe, SE Asia

Indian students are now increasingly eyeing the non-US nations for higher studies. According to career counsellors, students going to countries such as Sweden, Germany, France, China and Russia have risen by 20 per cent year-on-year.

During the last few years students have been shifting their focus from popular educational hubs such as the US, UK, Australia and Canada to European and South-East Asian nations. While countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France and Ireland attract students opting for masters in telecom, biotechnology, technical and non-technical subjects, Russia, the Philippines, China and Ukraine are increasingly becoming the preferred destination for medical students.

“The primary reason behind the choice of these nations is the lower costs of education compared to the US and UK. Sweden offers free education with its Government providing complete financial support to students studying there. Further, getting part time jobs there are easy, enabling students to earn their living while pursuing their education,” said Bharat Saini, CEO, Drishti Educational Foundation.

Agreed Ajay Patel, head of Education at the Russian Cultural Centre, who said: “The last six years saw a huge number of students going to Russia for studying medicine. Every year about 1,300 students take up MBBS at Russian colleges and the main reason behind this is the cheap fee structure and the absence of donations.”

Each medical college in Russia enrols about 200 students per year and 140 out of them are Indians. Russia has 57 medical colleges and 7 engineering colleges and the cost of medical courses in Russia ranges between Rs 1.2- 3 lakh. However, the disadvantage is that only Russian nationals get jobs. But since the demand for doctors is high in India and there is a huge gap between the demand and supply, these students don’t find it difficult to bag a job once they complete the course, Patel added.

According to Mahesh Iyer, associate VP, Forex of Thomas Cook, every year about 1.5 lakh students from India go abroad for higher education and this number is rising by 35 per cent annually. During 2007-2008, about 1,700 students went to France, while 4,500 students opted for Germany as their educational destination.

Destinations such as Singapore, Dubai and Ireland are also attracting a lot of Indian planning to take up business studies.

However, the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada still remain the top choices for many. “Language barrier is the main issue. The time taken for completion of any particular courses in the US and UK is lesser compared to European countries,” said Nalini Gupta, head of travel business market, Thomas Cook.