Let’s not forget Western universities need Indian students more than ever
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In 2024, 1.33 million Indian students were pursuing higher education abroad, nearly double the number in 2019. Of these, 1.07 million, or 80%, were in the ‘big four’ host countries: i.e., the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.
Though China sends the largest number of students abroad, India has more students in the US, UK and Canada than China. Indians spent $60 billion on higher education abroad in 2023. It is estimated that the count of Indian students overseas will hit 2 million soon and their total expenditure may reach $70 billion in 2025.
The numbers indicate high and growing demand among Indian students to study at universities of the Global North. What begins as education is often an opportunity to work there and eventually emigrate from India. Over the past decade or so, these universities have also grown keener to attract Indian students.
Their eagerness to admit students from India can be traced to an ongoing decline in domestic enrolments and financial difficulties. This represents the emergence of a new paradigm of interdependence in the relationship between international students and host universities. Foreign students represent 22% of all enrolments at higher education institutions in the UK, 24% in Australia and 30% in Canada.
The US hosts the largest number of international students at 1.1 million, but they account for only 6% of all enrolments. However, the share of international students in US varsities can be expected to increase in the coming years, given that the country’s higher-education sector is approaching a so-called ‘enrolment cliff’—brought about by an expected drop in the US population of high-school graduates—in 2026. This will translate to shrinking
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