Which country is the “dream destination” for Indian students aspiring to study abroad?

According to a study conducted by Oxford International Education Services and The Knowledge Partnership, the USA is the first choice – even though students also perceive the USA to be the most costly in terms of both tuition fees and cost of living. The study found that two factors accounted for the USA being the top choice of Indian students, namely quality of education and universities’ reputation.

In terms of affordability, Indian students perceived the UK more favorably, and when they sized up the chances of getting a scholarship, they placed highest hopes on Australia.

In general, the motivations that drive Indian students to seek higher education abroad came as no surprise. Economic benefit was the Number One attraction. The chance to soak up another culture and opportunity to gain complete fluency in another language were almost equal in their appeal. 

The perceived barriers to studying abroad were also predictable.

The study sought student responses to a number of questions and it is interesting to note how the answers varied by nationality of the students. 

It must be noted that despite a thorough search that tried several possible keywords, Google discovered no actual copy of the study itself. The closest we came to seeing the full and precise results was a photo of the study’s cover page. This was carried in The Financial Express of Dec 21, 2023*. A day later, a report on the study came out in the Economic Times*. 

[* 2023, Dec 21: The Financial Express: Global culture and developing language skills top factors for Indian students for study abroad.

** 2023, Dec 22: Economic Times: Global culture, better jobs top motivating factors for Indians aspiring to study abroad. By Rica Bhattacharyya].

It appears that Oxford International Education Services supplied the report to the press for a second time in the second week of April this year.  The second release was more widely covered in the Indian media than the first.

One possible reason why the actual report has not been made public on the internet may be that there are problems in the methodology of the study.

Also.the size of the sample appears to have been small. According to a report in the Economic Times**, the SGMI study covered a sample size of somewhat more than 500 current and prospective students in the key markets, namely, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Nigeria.

Many researchers have looked at the international mobility of students. They have been drawn from fields that include economics, sociology, management, public policy and education – which indicates the complexity of the topic and the number of angles from which it can be viewed.  One major problem in carrying out research in this topic is that so far, the researchers have not agreed on exactly who is a student. Definitions may be very broad or very narrow. National governments also define “student” in different ways, which means that data from several nations may be difficult to compare.

Take the not uncommon case of a person who enters a foreign country to study, simultaneously finds a livelihood, and perhaps marries and has children AND continues to enroll in courses AND applies for permanent residence or citizenship. Is that person a student or a migrant?

The “mobility experience” involves the interplay between national and international circumstances and individual, micro-level circumstances. Political and economic considerations mingle with personal aspirations. One can easily imagine a young person from Afghanistan moving heaven and earth to gain admission in a foreign university … for the sake of realizing his or her own potential, of course; but also because Afghanistan is in dire straits economically and because the political situation makes life itself uncertain.

These complications may explain why the researchers from Oxford International and The Knowledge Partnership focused on motivations to study abroad, as opposed to assembling data on students who succeeded in going abroad to study as reported by host countries or countries of origin.

Another reason for the focus on student perceptions and motivations lies in the business focus of both Oxford International Education Group and The Knowledge Partnership. In its mission statement OIEG declares:

As the global race for students intensifies, OIEG’s Education Services division is committed to helping partners attract and convert talented students worldwide, helping them build a more robust market presence and effectively mark themselves to diversify their talent pool.

This fits well with research activities of The Knowledge Partnership:

The Knowledge Partnership has been at the forefront of the development of new frameworks and models to enable education organisations to evaluate and benchmark their practice, and then guide the creation of plans and strategies. The Knowledge Partnership is the leading international centre for the research and management of reputation in the education sector.

By surveying the perceptions of aspiring students India and Pakistan, Vietnam and Nigeria – countries from which colleges and universities in the English-speaking world would like to attract students and the profits that they represent – OIEG and The Knowledge Partnership are providing data that can be used to tailor effective “sales pitches” to these potential students.