Mumbai: Long before international rankings, student visas and post-study work rights shaped academic ambition, India was itself a magnet for learning. Nalanda and Takshashila, Vikramshila and Vallabhi,
Kashi and Ujjain drew scholars from across Asia, nurturing debates in philosophy, medicine, mathematics and statecraft. Knowledge flowed into the subcontinent, not out of it. Two millennia later, the direction has decisively reversed. India is now the world’s largest source of international students, sending hundreds of thousands of young people abroad each year in search of education, opportunity and global exposure.
Rising Outbound Student Mobility: Data and Trends
According to a recent NITI Aayog report, the country’s approach to internationalisation remains overwhelmingly outward-looking, driven by high and rising student mobility to foreign universities. The numbers tell a compelling story. In 2016, around 684,800 Indian students were studying overseas. A year later, that figure rose by nearly 18% to more than 806,000. After a sharp dip in 2018, mobility recovered steadily before surging dramatically in 2021, when post-pandemic reopenings propelled outbound numbers to over 1.15 million — a jump of more than 69% in a single year.
By 2024, the total had climbed to around 1.34 million, suggesting a possible stabilisation after years of volatility. Between 2016 and 2024, outbound mobility grew at a compounded annual rate of nearly 9%. This sustained expansion reflects a profound shift in aspirations. Globalisation, aggressive international recruitment, and perceptions of superior quality and employability have all played a role. For many middle-class Indian families, overseas education has become both an academic investment and a pathway to migration, global careers and social mobility. Five countries dominate this landscape. Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany together account for the bulk of Indian students abroad, though their relative positions have shifted markedly over the past decade.
United States: A Steady Attraction Despite Challenges
The United States has remained a constant presence. It hosted around 424,000 Indian students in 2016, a figure that dipped during the pandemic to about 168,000 in 2020, before rebounding to roughly 338,000 by 2024. Despite visa uncertainties and rising costs, American universities continue to attract Indian students with their research ecosystems, global prestige and strong labour market outcomes, the report pointed out. Canada’s rise has been more dramatic. From fewer than 95,000 Indian students in 2016, numbers soared by 350%, pushing the country to the top position in both 2020 and 2024.
By last year, Canada was hosting more than 427,000 Indian students, buoyed by relatively liberal visa regimes, post-study work options and clearer pathways to permanent residency. The United Kingdom, once a less favoured option after the tightening of post-study work rules in the early 2010s, has staged a striking comeback. Indian student numbers rose from just over 16,500 in 2016 to more than 185,000 by 2024. The reintroduction of post-study work visas and a concerted push by British universities have restored the UK’s appeal.
Australia and Germany: Steady Growth and Emerging Interest
Australia, while still popular, has slipped slightly in relative terms. Indian enrolments increased from around 78,000 in 2016 to 122,000 in 2024, but the country fell from third to fourth place as growth accelerated elsewhere.
Germany, meanwhile, has recorded steady gains, with Indian student numbers rising from about 10,800 in 2016 to nearly 43,000 in 2024, reflecting interest in affordable, high-quality education, particularly in engineering and applied sciences. Beyond the leading five, a second tier of destinations has emerged. Countries such as the UAE, Russia, Georgia, the Philippines, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan attract smaller but significant numbers of Indian students, often for specialised or cost-sensitive programmes, especially in medicine and technical disciplines. These choices suggest a diversification of destinations, shaped less by global rankings and more by affordability, admission flexibility and niche demand.
The UAE’s Pandemic Spike and Subsequent Decline
The UAE offers a cautionary example. During the pandemic, it briefly overtook Canada as the top destination, hosting more than 325,000 Indian students in 2021. By 2024, however, that figure had fallen sharply to around 25,000, underlining how temporary factors — travel restrictions, proximity and regional convenience — can distort longerterm trends. The financial consequences of this outward surge are substantial. Reserve Bank of India data show that remittances under the “studies abroad” category of the ‘liberalised remittance scheme’ rose more than twenty-fold over a decade, from Rs 975 crore in 2013–14 to nearly Rs 29,000 crore in 2023–24. That sum alone amounts to more than half of India’s total Union budget allocation for higher education.
Crucially, these official figures capture only part of the picture. They do not fully account for tuition fees paid directly overseas, accommodation costs or living expenses. Industry estimates suggest the true outflow is far higher. ASSOCHAM has estimated that Indian students were spending more than Rs 96,500 crore annually on overseas education as early as 2020, while other reports put total spending at Rs 3.8 lakh crore in 2022. This imbalance is stark. Roughly 3% of Indian students studying abroad account for expenditure equivalent to over half the domestic higher education budget, which serves the remaining 97%. At the same time, inbound student mobility to India remains modest, limiting both revenue and cross-cultural academic exchange.
For policymakers, this raises uncomfortable questions. As India aspires to become a Viksit Bharat by 2047, can it afford to remain primarily an exporter of students rather than a destination for global talent? The NITI Aayog report argues that history offers both inspiration and direction. India’s ancient centres of learning once embodied openness, excellence and internationalism. Nalanda and Takshashila were not merely universities but global knowledge hubs, hosting scholars from China, Korea, Central Asia and beyond. Today’s challenge is to recreate that magnetism in a modern context.
National Education Policy 2020: Internationalisation At Home
The National Education Policy 2020 seeks to do just that. It places “internationalisation at home” at the centre of reform, encouraging foreign universities to establish campuses in India, promoting joint degrees and research collaborations, and easing regulations for international students and faculty. Asia is emerging as a new axis of knowledge creation. For India, with its scale, demographic dividend and intellectual legacy, the opportunity is clear.
Whether the country can balance its ancient inheritance with modern aspirations — transforming itself from a source of global students into a global destination — remains an open question. For now, the classrooms of Toronto, Boston, London and Melbourne continue to fill with Indian voices, even as the echoes of Nalanda remind the nation of a time when the world once came to learn here.
(Source: NITI Aayog)
