It’s almost November, time for foreign universities to swoop down and make their presentations. Admissions for international students have started off for January 2022 intake in the UK (United Kingdom), USA (United States of America), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and many more. But the UK, USA, and Canada are on the top list of Indian students aspiring to study abroad. This year, many universities have waived GRE that is the Graduate Record Examinations which was an admission requirement for many universities in the United States, Canada, and a few more countries.
This year like the years earlier post graduation has the biggest pull but what is interesting is that not all clients are as excited about going abroad. With Covid still out there, the safety net that one’s own country offers is not prevalent out there. Children want to go abroad to study and parents are coughing up the dough but there are mixed feelings about the foreign dreams.
FPJ spoke to various consultants who advice students in regard to studying abroad. When asked about what courses Indian students apply for abroad, Jinal Oswal of Cranberry Overseas Educational Consultants says, “Students mostly go abroad for pursuing engineering and business courses.”
Mr. Irshad Dhorajiwala of Arzoo Consultants said, “Students mostly go abroad for Post Graduate courses and Masters Program. If we consider computer science graduates, they are mostly inclined towards data science, data analytics, and Artificial Intelligence. B.com graduates go for MBA programs.”
“It is not that India does not provide these courses, but the majority of the Indian universities do not follow practical oriented education, they stick towards the theoretical party. Abroad universities give equal importance to theory as well as practical knowledge. Secondly, in India the course models are not regularly updated according to the market needs,” Mr. Irshad added.
According to Mr. Jatin Ambani of Advice Consultants, students generally land in European countries for pursuing Heritage Conservation courses.
It has been observed that most of the Indian students have made Canada their study abroad destination. “Canada gives you Permanent Residence facility, hence most preferred option for students. Still, UK and USA too are quite popular countries among Indian students for international education,” said Jatin.
Australia used to be a popular educational destination for Indian students but is now lagging behind because of sealed borders. “Definitely the number of students going to Australia has been reduced but there are students studying online from Australian universities,” says Jinal Oswal of Cranberry Overseas Educational Consultants.
When asked about the pandemic effect, Jinal says, “Surely pandemic has affected the intake of students but not drastically. The September 2020 intake was quite a bit affected by Covid issues but still, students have been going and are still going abroad for higher education.”
To this, Mr. Jatin stated, “Quite a few parents have become cautious to send their children abroad. A Covid restriction like getting quarantined for a few days is a very costly affair there so for sure pandemic has affected international education but the world is opening up now. Students have started going and the number has improved.”
