Rise in students going abroad for higher studies

Countries like UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and others have become go-to destination for graduate courses.

Hyderabad: The number of youngsters travelling out to pursue their degrees is rising, and a large number of students are spreading out to different parts of globe for top ranked higher learning.

The strength of students going abroad for graduate courses is going strong, mainly in countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and others. “The main reason for this is the employment sector’s layoffs and with recession around the corner, people feel this is the best time to go and study,” says V Ajaya Kumar, Director of IMFS.

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Majority of the engineering background students travel abroad for their master’s programme and opt for the USA. “Those who do not have an engineering background would have a three-year bachelor’s degree which was not accepted in the USA until recently. So students preferred countries like UK and Australia for their studies,” says Narsi Reddy Gayam, GRE trainer at PROMAC.

Meanwhile, Canada has emerged a destination as big as the USA, while the students who go there opt for a lot more varied courses. Also, the UK as a destination picked up in the past couple of years especially after allowing students to stay back for their work once done with their studies. “Students who did their course from the UK were not quite happy with the job opportunities,” says Ajaya adding, “while Canada continues to see fast growth, the UK needs to exercise a bit of caution.”

Australia which completely shut down after the pandemic is taking aggressive steps to attract students. “They are talking of a five-year post-study work option and if that turns into law, it will see a rise in students going back there,” points out Ajaya.

New Zealand, meanwhile, too has picked up really fast, it has excellent universities, and has a lot of opportunities especially in the field of civil engineering. As a higher learning destination, Ireland also offers opportunities for students as most of the companies from Pharma and IT are being moved there from London.

Trending courses across the globe

Students heading for international universities have been choosing different and new courses that are trending across the globe.

“Students that go for masters abroad apply for courses like computer science, artificial intelligence data analytics, business management, information technology, and others,” says Alka Sharmaa, Educationalist at Blue Sky Overseas. Students have also been showing interest in courses like environmental studies, psychology, and International law that are trending.

Most students are keen to get into international Ivy League universities and universities that come under the top 100 ranking. “More number of students have been applying to universities like Kelly School of Business, Cornell University, University Centre Warrington, University of Bolton, Penn State University, and Purdue University,” she adds.

Impact of Russia-Ukrain war, Covid-19

While the war between Russia and Ukraine mostly affected the students going to Ukraine for higher education, studies abroad came to a halt when coronavirus pandemic spread in waves.

Consultants monitoring the situation point out that countries like Australia, and New Zealand shut their borders during the pandemic, not allowing students to study on campus, while USA, Canada, and the UK allowed students only with very strict regulations. “Now that everything is going back to normal, a huge upsurge in the number of students wanting to go abroad can be seen,” said Ajaya.

“Russian students are seen to be heading towards European universities for their higher education,” said Alka Sharmaa, Educationalist at Blue Sky Overseas.