How will India attract international students to its shores?

India is on a mission to rapidly expand the number of international students it welcomes to its universities. In 2018, the Indian government set an ambitious target to grow international student enrolments to 200,000 by 2023, over four4 times the total enrolment figure at the time.

International student numbers have shot up dramatically compared to nearly 10 years ago in 2012. Year-on-year increases have however slowed to a crawl in the second half of that time. With slowing overall international enrolments, the time is ripe for our HE sector to transform its international ambitions and rethink its offering to potential international students.

Inbound students and where they come from

According to the Indian Ministry of Education, there were 49,400 international students in India in 2020, an increase of 74% on 2012. Growth has slowed over the latter half of this time period, but it is still on the rise. Perhaps surprisingly, international enrolments in Indian HEIs continued to increase last year despite the pandemic and the limitations on student mobility it brought globally.

Source: Indian Ministry of Education

Nepal is the largest source of international students to India, followed by Afghanistan and Bangladesh. In 2020, there were 13, 900 students from Nepal in India, 4,500 from Afghanistan, and 2,300 from Bangladesh.

Of the top five sending countries, four are regional neighbors (Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan), with only Sudan as an exception to the rule. These four countries account for nearly half of the international students in India, highlighting that India is at least for the moment very much a regional hub.

Source: UNESCO

According to data from UNESCO, enrolments from the top three sending countries to India have overall grown since 2012. Afghan and Bengladeshi enrolments have slowed since 2016, but and has grown even faster since then.

Afghan enrolments have overall almost tripled since 2012 but effectively flat-lined from 2016 onwards. The current failing economic situation since the Taliban took control of the country and the disdain towards education of the new leaders potentially spells bad news for future Afghan enrolments.

Source: UNESCO

Removing Nepal and Afghanistan from the trends paints a clearer picture of why growth in international enrolments is slowing. Enrolments from the largest senders after Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sudan are dropping. Since Bhutan’s peak in 2016, enrolments have dropped by 33% and Sudanese numbers have dropped by 21% since 2018. While these two countries sent far fewer students than Nepal, they are significant enough to visibly take a cut out of total international student numbers.

What attracts students to India?

As touched on above, the top four sending countries to India are fellow South Asian neighbours. Regionally, India has one of the stronger education systems making it a strong contender for students able to study overseas but who are unwilling to travel far. Cultural links and lesser language barriers are also likely key factors. Although the languages of South Asia are diverse, many are relatively closely related.

Not only is India close to its major sending partners geographically, but it is also an affordable option. The top five sending countries are all either classified as lower-middle income countries or low income countries, meaning that a majority of potential students do not have the financial means to study in the leading host countries of international students such as the US or UK.

The US has become the largest sender to India after the top five, suggesting that India certainly has the potential to attract students from wider afield. This is all the more impressive considering that the US sends surprisingly few students overseas compared to the huge number it welcomes to its own shores.

Although information explaining the growth in interest from the US is limited, one source with experience organizing pre-departure seminars for US students travelling to India suggested some plausible reasons. As more Indians choose to live or study in the US, Americans are increasingly exposed to Indian culture and business. This has gradually translated into greater curiosity for Indian culture such as its languages and religions.

Interestingly the background to US enrolments highlights the importance of outward mobility in developing inward mobility – a point perhaps underestimated in India’s most recent policy. Too much stress on “internationalization at home” forgets the key role outbound students have in representing India overseas.

As for subject areas, STEM is the major pull to India. Other than Business Administration, the top five subjects among international students are all science or technology focused. The most popular type of programme with triple the enrolments of the next most popular is the bachelor of technology programme, enrolling 9,500 international students in 2019/20.

International enrolments are as of yet not particularly well spread across subject areas, with 80% of enrolments concentrated on only 16 programme types. The majority of international students in India, some 74%, were enrolled on undergraduate courses in 2019/20. Enrolments in postgraduate programmes meanwhile accounted for 16% of the total, and PhD enrolments for 3.3%.

How should the trends affect decision making? 

With growth of inbound students from traditional source countries slowing or dropping, the Indian HE sector will need to diversify and appeal to more country markets if it is to continue making progress towards its enrolment targets.

Increasing enrolment from the US shows that this is possible, but also that different regional markets will demand different things from the sector. While traditional senders have favored STEM subjects and were attracted by the affordability of Indian education, western partners, if following the US trend, will likely be attracted first and foremost by India’s culture.

The good news is that the priorities of the NEP should be beneficial to this. The commitment of the MoE to develop a highly holistic approach to Indian education placing tremendous value on India’s cultural heritage is likely to make an impact on students attracted to India predominantly out of cultural interest.