Indians to spend $80 bn annually on study abroad by 2024: Report

Even as the number of Indian students opting for higher education overseas grows annually, their spending abroad is set to grow from the current annual $28 billion to $80 billion by 2024, the latest ‘Higher Education Abroad’ report by consulting firm Redseer estimates.

According to the report, the number of Indian students opting for higher education abroad grew from 440,000 in 2016 to 770,000 in 2019.

This is set to grow further to roughly 1.8 million by 2024, resulting in an increased overseas spending on higher education. Compared to this, the number of students domestically increased from 37 million to roughly 40 million between 2016 and 2019.

Commenting on the trend, Anil Kumar, founder & chief executive officer (CEO) at Redseer said, “Student outflow abroad for higher education is expected to grow at an accelerated pace. The current journey of these students remains fairly fragmented. Thus, there exists a white space for online-first players to provide an integrated solution at scale.”

The report adds that most students are opting for postgraduate courses in English-speaking or Anglophone destinations and this trend is expected to be maintained in the near future.

Notably, Canada has emerged as the most-preferred country for Indian students abroad, replacing the US over the last 3-5 years. Destinations such as

Australia, Canada, the UK and the US have a higher concentration of institutions, which attract students from across the world. The US, which has over 4,000 universities across the country, offers the highest average salary levels, followed by the UK and Canada.

Moreover, unlike domestic students, where 84 per cent take general courses and 16 per cent specialised courses, 70 per cent of outbound Indian students opt for specialised courses with only 30 per cent going for general courses. The specialised courses include computer application, nursing, engg and others.