Why finance students are rethinking study abroad

This article is authored by Anant Bengani, director & co-founder, Zell Education.

For Indian students considering an overseas degree in finance, the biggest question is no longer simply where to study. It is what happens after the degree.

Student (AP)

For years, study-abroad decisions have revolved around university rankings, global reputation, tuition fees and the promise of an international experience. These factors still matter. But as the transition from classrooms to workplaces becomes more competitive, students are increasingly being pushed to look beyond the name on their degree certificate and think about the kind of career that qualification can realistically support.

This shift is particularly relevant to finance, a field that is changing rapidly with technology, data and automation becoming part of everyday professional practice.

The Economic Survey 2025-26 makes a similar point about the changing relationship between education and employment. It highlights the growing importance of industry exposure, practical learning and short-form credentials that can complement formal education and contribute to career progression.

For a student planning to pursue finance overseas, choosing a university should ideally begin with a career question: What do I want to do with this degree?

Investment banking, financial analysis, risk management, audit, accounting, corporate finance and fintech may all sit under the larger umbrella of finance, but they do not demand exactly the same skills.

A programme with strong financial modelling and market exposure may be relevant to one career path, while another student may benefit more from coursework in accounting, risk, data analytics or financial technology. The value of an international programme, therefore, depends partly on how closely its curriculum connects with the student's intended career.

This also changes how students should assess universities. Rankings can indicate academic reputation, but they do not always reveal the quality of internships, employer networks, live projects, career services or opportunities to work on real-world financial problems.

The traditional image of finance as a numbers-and-spreadsheets profession is also evolving.

Financial institutions increasingly rely on data analytics, automation and artificial intelligence for areas ranging from risk assessment and fraud detection to forecasting and decision-making. For students, this means that financial knowledge alone may not be enough.

Technical fluency can increasingly become a differentiator. Depending on the career path, that could mean learning advanced Excel, financial modelling, data analysis, programming or understanding how AI-enabled tools are being used in financial services.

The objective is not to turn every finance student into a technology specialist. Rather, it is to ensure that domain knowledge can be applied effectively in a technology-led workplace.

This is where internships and industry exposure become particularly important.

The Economic Survey 2025-26 emphasises the need to connect education more closely with work experience. For students going abroad, that principle offers a useful way to evaluate programmes: Not simply by asking what they will learn, but also where and how they will apply it.

A university that offers employer-led projects, internships, placement support, case competitions or opportunities to work with financial institutions can provide an important bridge between academic knowledge and professional expectations.

The wider employment environment reinforces this concern. According to the PLFS 2025, the unemployment rate among India's youth aged 15-29 was 9.9% in 2025. While this figure is not specific to finance or international graduates, it underlines a larger reality: moving from education to employment requires more than completing a qualification.

This is also why professional certifications need to be approached thoughtfully.

Students can sometimes fall into the trap of collecting degrees, certifications and short courses without a clear understanding of how each will contribute to their career. A professional qualification can be valuable when it strengthens a specific career pathway, improves technical competence or meets a professional requirement. But it should not become an automatic addition to an overseas degree.

The better approach is to build a coherent combination of education, skills and experience.

Studying abroad can still offer significant advantages: Exposure to international markets, diverse classrooms, global professional networks and access to financial ecosystems that students may not encounter at home.

But an overseas degree should increasingly be evaluated as part of a larger career strategy rather than as an end in itself.

For finance students, the strongest pathway may, therefore, be one that brings together a relevant academic programme, practical experience, technology and analytical skills, and a clear understanding of the employment market in the country where they intend to work.

The question is no longer simply whether studying abroad is worth the investment. It is whether the entire education-to-employment pathway justifies it.

For students making one of their biggest financial and academic decisions, that may be the more important question to ask.

(The views expressed are personal)

This article is authored by Anant Bengani, director & co-founder, Zell Education.