JOIN USThe past twenty years have seen a dramatic change in the number of students going abroad. Reasons range from the opening of the Indian economy, access to bank loans, promotion of education by universities coming to India from Australia, UK, Canada and many other countries, etc.
While the expense of studying abroad is a barrier, the fact that students may have the opportunity to stay back in countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand, has added value to the attraction of overseas education.
The last two years have seen a significant rise in the cost of studying abroad, due to the weakening rupee. Costs have increased by as much as 40 per cent for Australia for instance, where the Australian dollar conversion has changed from Rs 41 in August to 2010 to Rs 58 in August 2012. Similarly for the UK and Singapore, the exchange rate fluctuations have resulted in a cost increase of 22 to 28 per cent.
Exchange rate conversions always present a risk and these costs simply have to be considered and absorbed. This does not take away anything from the professional opportunities and the personal development that students undergo when they study at prestigious universities overseas.
The success of traditional English speaking countries in attracting international students has encouraged many other countries to jump into the fray.
Germany
Germany has become a popular destination for Indian students, as education there is government subsidised. The tuition fees are as low as Rs 35,500 (euros 500) per semester and living expenses of Rs 5.5 lakh per year. In addition, students are allowed to stay back in the country for up to one and half years, while being allowed to work full time, for up to 120 days a year. German universities however are looking for the brightest students, particularly for their Masters and PhD programmes.
Sweden
Sweden is also an excellent option and many of the universities there offer generous scholarships, particularly for engineering studies. Students can also choose to stay back in the country for up to a year, and can work for up to 20 hours per week.
Canada
Canadian colleges continue to be one of the most popular places to study due to the high quality of education, reasonable costs, as well as the stay back option, with a possibility of absorption into the workforce. Even students studying two-year programmes can stay back for up to three years following completion of their degrees.
Another option that students should also review is to study in Indian institutions that have twinning arrangements with universities overseas. This allows them to study part of their degree overseas. At the undergraduate level institutions such as GD Goenka, Ansals Institute of Technology and Manipal have credit transfer articulations based on maintaining a good credit point average. In addition Indian institutions such as Amity and IMT have campuses in Dubai and studying costs are somewhat reasonable.
USA
USA has always been generous with scholarships and students doing well in their SAT, GRE and GMAT scores have an excellent opportunity to avail of scholarships. Moreover, US and Canadian universities assess student performance during the first year and grant merit scholarships. Bright students can end up getting almost 50 per cent tuition waiver in the last 2-3 years of their undergraduate study. Similarly, Masters students, interested in research, can be picked up by the faculty for research or teaching assistantships. These projects and stipends are a value addition for resumes when looking for jobs. Canadian Masters’ courses in most universities have now become more research oriented (Applied Sciences courses) and students can avail of almost 60-80 per cent funding on their tuition fees
UK
UK has some of the best and oldest universities and many do offer scholarships. The significant scholarships are of course offered to only the brightest students.
(The writer is the Managing Director of The Chopras.)