New Delhi: India continues to send a large number of students overseas for higher education, with more than 13.35 lakh Indians studying abroad in 2024, highlighting the country’s growing dependence on foreign universities despite having the world’s largest college-age population, according to a report released by NITI Aayog Monday.
Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany have emerged as the five most preferred international higher education destinations for Indian students, the report said.
The report said that Canada was the top destination in 2024, with around 4.27 lakh Indian students studying in the country.
The US followed with 3.37 lakh Indian students, while the UK hosted about 1.85 lakh students from India.
Australia and Germany ranked fourth and fifth, with 1.22 lakh and nearly 43,000 Indian students, respectively.
The report also highlighted that India has the largest higher education-age population in the world, with nearly 15.5 crore people in the 18–23 age group.
The findings point to a sharp imbalance between outgoing and incoming students. In 2024, for every one international student who came to India, about 28 Indian students went abroad for higher education, indicating a significant brain drain.
The report, titled ‘Internationalisation of Higher Education in India’, also looked at the inflow of foreign students into India using data from 2021–22.
It noted that while outward mobility is rising rapidly, the number of international students choosing India remains relatively low.
According to the study, Canada, the US, the UK and Australia together hosted around 8.5 lakh Indian students, who spent nearly Rs 2.9 lakh crore on higher education during 2023–24.
The report further pointed out that some smaller European countries have a high share of Indian students.
Latvia had the highest proportion, with Indian students making up 17.4 per cent of its international student population, followed by Ireland at 15.3 per cent and Germany at 10.1 per cent, based on data from 2020.
