India is the least expensive country for foreign undergraduate students in terms of education and living expenses, a new survey has found.
Cost of education According to HSBC’s latest survey The Value of Education: Springboard for success , Australia, Singapore and the US occupy the top three positions in the expenditure chart for overseas students.
In India, the average annual cost (including university fees and living expenditure) for an undergraduate overseas student is $5,643, of which $581 is university fees.
Australia, at $42,093 a year, offers the most expensive college degree, followed by Singapore at $39,229 and the US at $36,565. Overseas undergraduate students need to shell out around $35,045 a year to study in the UK, the survey noted.
The report surveyed over 4,500 parents in 15 countries.
Emerging markets cheaper Sanjiv Sud, Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management, HSBC India, said, “Education costs are lower in emerging markets such as India because the state-run universities are heavily funded by the Government and also the cost of living for overseas students is lower here.”
In terms of quality, about 62 per cent of Indian parents ranked the country among their top three destinations.
Countries such as UK (54 per cent) and Australia (47 per cent) are ranked second and third in terms of quality of education by Indian parents, followed by their home country (46 per cent).
India, however, ranks eighth in terms of quality of education among the 15 countries with just five per cent of respondents putting it in their top their preferred destinations, the survey added.