Over 1.3 million Indian students studying abroad, Canada tops list: NITI Aayog report

Canada, the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany have emerged as the top five international higher education destinations for Indian students, according to a report released by NITI Aayog on Monday, December 22.

In 2024, Canada was the top international higher education destination with a total of 427,000 Indian students visiting the country. This was followed by the USA with 337,630 Indian students, the United Kingdom with 185,000, Australia with 122,202, and Germany with 42,997 students, the report said.

It further said that India is the world’s largest source country of international students with over 13.35 lakh (1.335 million) students studying overseas in 2024. Also, the country has the largest higher education age cohort (18-23 years) in the world, 15.5 crore (155 million).

“In 2024, for every 1 international student coming to India, 28 Indian students went abroad, underscoring a significant brain drain for the country,” it said.

About the inflow of foreign students in India, the report titled ‘Internationalisation of Higher Education in India’ presented the data of 2021-22.

Nepal, Afghanistan, the USA, Bangladesh and the UAE were the top source countries of international students in India in 2021-22, it said.

As per the report, Canada, the US, UK and Australia host 8.5 lakh Indian students who spent INR 2.9 lakh crore on higher education in 2023-2024.

At the same time, Latvia has the highest, 17.4 per cent, of Indian students, followed by Ireland, hosting 15.3 per cent, and Germany, 10.1 per cent.

The report, citing numbers recorded in 2020, said that among states, Andhra Pradesh was the top source with 35,614 students going overseas, followed by Punjab, which sent 33,412, and Maharashtra 29,079 students for higher education.

It noted a surge in outward remittances from INR 975 crore to INR 29,000 crore during 2014–24 under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme for Indian students studying abroad.