More students have shown interest in going abroad for higher studies in 2021, compared to the pandemic-hit 2020.

Rise in queries

According to firms involved in guiding students to colleges abroad, there has been an uptick in the number of queries, with students showing more interest in moving to the US for higher education.

“We have seen a massive increase for US, but there is a decrease in interest for Australia and New Zealand. Overall numbers will need to be seen once the official numbers are out, but next year might be the biggest year for the US till now,” said Sumeet Jain, Co-founder at Yocket, a study-abroad consultancy. According to Jain, the largely successful American vaccination programme, is among the reasons for students wanting to go there.

“Many students were worried initially when the pandemic started. A lot of confidence has come in from the last year.

“US vaccination progress was a big boost to students’ confidence and sentiments. Another factor is the way the US embassy has been giving priority to students and also being clear in their communications for students,” he said.

According to Naveen Chopra, Founder, TC Global - New Delhi (formerly The Chopras Group), a study-abroad consultancy, there has been an uptick in queries.

“The number of students who want to go abroad for higher education has skyrocketed.

“There has been an increase of approximately 20 per cent in the queries from the students who want to go abroad for higher education compared to 2018-19,” he said.

The waning of the pandemic is reflected in the number of students wanting to go abroad, according to a survey conducted by iSchoolConnect, a study-abroad consultancy.

“Up until the pandemic hit, the number of Indian students going abroad to pursue their educationhad been constantly increasing. In 2020, however, we saw a 56 per cent drop in the number of Indian international aspirants.

“Only 2,61,406 students from India went to study abroad last year 2020. But keeping in mind that this happened amid a raging pandemic, and realising that 71,769 students had already gone to study abroad from India by the end of February 2021, one can predict that the tides are changing.”

A recent survey conducted by iSchoolConnect also found that 36.5 per cent of Indian students are keen want to study abroad despite Covid.

The high demand for US colleges is also reflected in the iSchoolConnect survey. “Around 43 per cent of those surveyed wanted to study in the US. Canada was the next in line with 16 per cent interest, followed by the UK with 12 per cent; Germany with 10 per cent; and Australia at 4 per cent. For high school and undergraduate students, the US option stood out more clearly. Graduate-level students saw opportunity in other destinations as well,” the survey added.