Mumbai: On top of Italy’s popularity in the field of Art, Design, and Architecture, nearly a third of Indian students have opted to study Engineering in the European nation for the academic year 2023-24.
As per numbers accessed by The Free Press Journal from Uni-Italia, the official Italian centre for promoting higher education programmes and assisting international students, 29% of Indians chose Engineering for the upcoming academic year.
While 69% of them are going for Master’s, 29% have chosen to pursue Bachelor’s level courses, with the remaining cohort focusing on subjects related to engineering PhD studies.
The traditional preference for engineering courses in India coupled with the subject having a vast offer of English-taught programmes in Italy drives the numbers, according to Uni-Italia India’s Director, Federica Maria Giove.
"The huge demand for engineering-related courses among Indian students willing to study abroad is perfectly satisfied by the variety of Engineering English-taught programmes offered by Italian Universities. Italy offers 150+ Engineering programmes which, according to the International Higher Education Rankings by Subject, have achieved outstanding positions," stated Federica. According to the official data, over 30 % of Italian public and private universities offer English-taught courses across Italy.
Though traditional engineering programmes including mechanical, automotive, aerospace, and geo-engineering make up most of the subject choices, Italian universities’ crossover with Computer Science, Artificial intelligence, Robotics, and Data Analysis, have also proved to be very attractive for Indian students.
High success rate for job prospects in Italy
"We shouldn't forget that - according to the Almalaurea Inter University Consortium Report 2021 - the employment rate for Engineering students after one year of graduation is over 95%," asserted the Director.
Data gathered by Uni-Italia India, which FPJ has been privy to, also brings into light Indian students’ affinity towards postgraduate programmes. While 31.9% of students from India, who took assistance from the centre, chose to do Bachelor’s in Italy, 52.4% of the applicants are going for Master’s.
Courses such as Medicine, Architecture, Design, Management, and Fashion have also gained a significant number from India in 2023-24. While Fashion is the second most popular course, attributed to Italy’s famed industry, with 17.3% of the students; Medicine (13%), Design (11.4%), and Management (7.6%) are not far behind.
With Medicine, Engineering, and IT receiving a renewed focus in Italy’s ambitions to promote education in India, more than 3,000 study visas are expected to be issued in the country this year, as reported by The FPJ in February 2023.
