Even though India has become the fifth largest economy in the world and is rapidly moving towards becoming the fourth largest economy in the world, yet there are not enough options and opportunities available in the country to get quality higher education, nor is the sound education system at lower level available. Even, as per the qualification, employment is not available in the country, at the same time, there is no availability of basic facilities like roads, electricity, pure drinking water, basic health facility etc., leading to migration of youth from India.
After independence, many reforms have been made in the field of education, which have led to significant improvement in employment and research scenario, literacy rate etc. Today, there are more than 1,000 universities and 42,000 colleges across the country providing higher education, but they still lack adequate capital, skilled teachers and infrastructure. However, there has been a significant increase in research work in recent years. For example, there has been a 54 percent increase in research work from 2017 to 2022.
Today, the percentage of students pursuing higher education is only 13, whereas at the international level this percentage ranges between 28 to 90. According to the Worldwide Education for the Future Index, India was ranked 33rd in the world in terms of providing quality education in 2020, compared to 35th in 2019 and 40th in 2018. Obviously, this cannot be called an encouraging ranking.
Even today, no college or university from India occupies the top 10 positions in the world. According to the University Rankings, 2024, announced by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), which is a higher education analyst and services provider, headquartered in London with offices in Europe, Asia, and the USA, the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad is among the top 25 management institutes in the world in the Business and Management category, while the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru and Kolkata are among the top 50 business management institutes in the world. At the same time, in the university category, Jawaharlal University is one of the top 20 universities in the world. Savita Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai; Ranked top 24th in the world in dentistry category. Thus, no higher education institution in India is included in the top 10 institutions in the world.
Despite continuous improvements in the higher education sector in India, QS’s CEO Jessica Turner believes that the biggest challenge India faces is providing quality education to students, which can be achieved by providing infrastructure, skilled teachers and capital.
Due to large number of students pursuing education abroad, there is flow of capital from India to foreign countries and along with it there is also migration of talent. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, by January 2023, 15 lakh Indian students were studying abroad, while in 2022 this number was 13 lakh and in 2024 this number is likely to reach 24 lakh. During 2020 to 2021, the number of students pursuing education abroad increased by 50 percent. More children from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities of India are going to study abroad, due to the social status symbol and the desire to live abroad. Only 20 percent of the students studying abroad want to return to India after completing their studies, while 80 percent of the students want to settle there. Some youth are taking admission in “B” and “C” category educational institutions just to live abroad and are not hesitating even doing small jobs.
To change such situation, branches of foreign universities have been opened in India for Indian students to stay in India and take education from renowned universities of abroad, but Indian students are not taking much interest in taking admission in them, because the priority of student is to settle abroad instead of getting education from a foreign institute.
Among the students taking education abroad, 35 percent of the students are getting education in USA. Today, 1 out of every 4 students in USA’s educational institutions is of Indian origin. In 2024, these students can spend 75 to 85 billion dollars abroad. According to the Reserve Bank of India, Rs 5 billion was spent in foreign exchange in the financial year 2021-22. Before the start of the Corona pandemic, students studying abroad had spent $24 billion in foreign countries, which was 1 percent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP). This amount is expected to increase to 80 billion dollars in 2024. If Indian students had not gone to study abroad, then the foreign currency would have been used to meet the need of imports, economic activities in the country would have accelerated, the economy would have strengthened, the education system of the country would have been strengthened, the country’s talent would have been utilized in the country etc.
According to statistics, after China, India has the highest number of students going abroad to study. Indian students are going to countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, Russia, Australia, England, France, Germany, USA etc. to obtain degrees and diplomas in higher education like medical, engineering, business management.
Indian students have been going to countries like Russia, China, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Philippines etc. for almost 3 decades to obtain medical degree, because due to less medical seats in India, medical education here is very expensive. According to the National Medical Commission, there were only 596 medical colleges across the country in the financial year 2021-22, where the total number of medical seats was only 88,120. However, there are few examples of people going abroad to study engineering.
For the past many years, Indian students studying abroad have been being murdered and discriminated against, but after the Corona pandemic and the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, there is more concern about the safety of students studying abroad. This was done because during this period thousands of students in many countries became victims of the Corona pandemic. At the same time, during the pandemic, the Australian government had also closed the country’s borders for the Indian students studying threat.
Additionally, due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, more than 20,000 students were stranded in Ukraine in the early stages of the war. Even a few months ago, hundreds of Indian students were affected due to the closure of some colleges in Canada. A few days ago, some Indian students were attacked in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. In February 2024, Amarnath Ghosh, a student of Washington University in St. Louis, USA, was murdered. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, more than 400 students studying abroad have died since 2018, some of which were natural deaths, and some were murders. The highest number of deaths of students have occurred in Canada.
The government should increase the number of international treaties to improve the situation of murders or deadly attacks on Indian students abroad or racial remarks or discrimination. The number of seats in government medical and engineering colleges should be increased. Student insurance scheme should be started. Apart from this, there is a need for improvement at the grassroots level and greater investment in the field of education, promotion of innovation and research, better employment situation in the country, ease of doing business, good governance in the country and making the system transparent at every level.
Former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had once called Indian students studying abroad as brand ambassadors of the country, but today the lives of these Indian students are in danger. Hence, in this case, corrective steps need to be taken by the government.
Satish Singh, Ahmedabad based Senior Columnist,Views are personal
