‘Drop in India students to UK to continue’

The major drop in the number of Indian students coming to UK universities witnessed in recent years is set to continue, according to a new study by the British Council that sees Indian postgraduate (PG) students increasingly choosing to go to the United States.

The major drop in the number of Indian students coming to UK universities witnessed in recent years is set to continue, according to a new study by the British Council that sees Indian postgraduate (PG) students increasingly choosing to go to the United States.

According to the study’s projection of international students during the next decade, UK will see a slight drop overall and gain 83,000 PG students, but will remain the second most popular destination such students after the US.

UK projected to gain most of its growth from China — 44%. The study released on Monday says that the number of Indian PG students in the UK will increase, but at a slower rate.

Nine per cent of the UK’s PG growth to 2024 will be from India, but Indian students will represent 54% of PG growth for the US, it says. Nigerian PG students are projected to overtake Indian PGs in the UK: Of the 23 origin countries addressed in this research, China sends the highest number of PGs to the UK (49,000 students) followed by India (16,000) and Nigeria (12,000).

This will change over the next decade, however, and while China will continue to dominate enrolments with 85,000 PGs, Nigeria will send the second highest number of PGs (29,000), followed by India (24,000) and the US (15,000).

Some of the key forecasts are: The strongest annual average growth in outbound PG mobility will occur in Nigeria (+8.3%), followed by India (+7.5%), Indonesia (+7.2%), Pakistan (+6.4%) and Saudi Arabia (+5.2%).