Some 700 Indian students are facing deportation from Canada after “admission offer letters” provided by a Jalandhar-based immigration agency were established as fake. As more and more Indian students are opting to study abroad, many are falling prey to unscrupulous agents.
A six-year high
Indians now study in 240 countries around the world, the Ministry of External Affairs informed Rajya Sabha last month. Canada, Australia, the UK, and the US remain the top choices, but sizable numbers are also travelling to Uzbekistan, Philippines, Russia, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.
The numbers have only risen after the pandemic, the data suggest. Indians going abroad for higher education touched a six-year high in 2022 at over 7.5 lakh, the Education Ministry told Parliament last month. India surpassed China to become the country with the most international students in the US in 2022.
Rising steadily
In fact, the number of Indians choosing to study abroad rose from 4.5 lakh in 2017 to 5.2 lakh in 2018 to around 5.86 lakh in 2019, as per government data. The pandemic resulted in this number crashing to 2.6 lakh in 2020.
Countries of choice
THE UK: Britain granted 1.4 lakh sponsored study visas to Indians in 2022, a major increase from the 34,261 visas in 2019, as per statistics available on the UK government website. The second largest group to be given sponsored study visas by the UK in 2022 was of Chinese students.
In September 2019, the UK announced a post-study work visa called the “graduate route”, which allowed international students, including those from India, to work, or look for work, in any career or position for two years after successfully completing their studies.
CANADA: As of 2019, there were over 2.2 lakh Indian study permit holders in Canada, constituting 34 per cent of Canada’s foreign student population. In 2021, as Canada placed a travel ban owing to the pandemic, many Indian students, especially from Punjab, sought to travel to the country through Russia, Serbia, Qatar, and Dubai.
The fact that Australia and New Zealand closed their borders to international students in 2021 also contributed to the surge in Indian student migration to Canada, experts in the immigration business said.
UKRAINE, CHINA: The Russian invasion plunged the future of some 18,000 Indian medical students in Ukraine in crisis. Around 23,000 Indian medical students reportedly studying in China could not go back to that country after the pandemic struck. However, with China opening up student visas in August 2022, around 6,200 of them are said to have obtained visas.
OTHER COUNTRIES: Several countries are now making specific efforts to liberalise student visas for Indians.
In 2019, there were 10,000 Indian students in France; the country aims to attract 20,000 Indian students by 2025. In July 2021, France announced that fully vaccinated Indian students could travel to the country without restrictions.
Greece plans to increase its outreach to Indian academic institutions through the official “Study in Greece” platform. The two countries have signed a Cultural and Educational Exchange Programme for 2022-2026.
