The Union government on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that more than six lakh Indians went abroad for higher education till November this year, compared with 4.44 lakh in 2021.
Responding to a question by Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan in the lower house, Minister of State for education Subhas Sarkar said 6,46,206 Indians went abroad showing their purpose as “higher education” till November 30, 2022.
The Minister clarified that while the Home Ministry’s Bureau of Immigration maintains the departure and arrival data of Indians, there are no records of the category of Indians going abroad for the purpose of higher education, it was stated.
“Purpose of Indians going abroad for higher education is captured manually based either on their verbal disclosure or the type of visa of the destination country produced by them at the time of immigration clearance,” he added.
Through this method, the government could capture that in 2021, 4,44,553 Indian students had gone abroad for higher education.
The numbers have steadily risen over the years: the number of students who went overseas for higher studies in 2017 was 4,54,009; 5,17,998 in 2018; 5,86,337 in 2019. In 2020, it dipped to 2,59,655 due to the pandemic, it was reported.
The US issued 82,000 student visas between June and August this year the highest among all the countries.
The latest UK immigration statistics released in August showed that India now accounts for the largest share of study visas issued by the country, overtaking China.
According to the recently released official immigration statistics by the UK, Indians have become the largest group of foreign students studying in the UK, taking over the Chinese with a massive hike of 273% in visas granted over the past few years.
According to the data collated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Indians also continue to be the top nationality granted visas in the skilled worker category in UK
