The education ministry on Wednesday told Rajya Sabha that approximately 1.3 million Indian students enrolled in foreign higher education institutions last year, of which the highest went to Canada (1.83 lakh) followed by Australia (1 lakh).

Minister of state for education, Subhas Sarkar shared data on the number of students who enrolled in foreign universities or colleges, as received from the ministry of external affairs (MEA), in response to a question in the upper house of parliament.

“As per MEA, there are approximately 1.3 million Indian students who are studying abroad in various courses for the year 2022. However, the ministry of education does not maintain any data regarding the expenditure incurred by Indian students pursuing higher studies in foreign countries,” said Sarkar in a written reply.

According to the data, out of total students going abroad for higher education last year, the highest number – 1,83,310 – went to Canada. This is followed by Australia (1,00,009), Germany (34,864), Georgia (14,000), France (10,003), Bangladesh (9,308), Armenia (8,015), China (6,436), Iran (2,050) among others.

Sarkar was replying to a question by DMK MP R Girirajan on the number of students pursuing higher education in foreign countries and if the government has a plan to cater to students’ needs to pursue quality education in the country itself.

“As announced in last year’s budget proposal, world-class foreign universities and institutions have been permitted in the GIFT City, Gujarat (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City) to offer courses in financial management, fintech, science, technology, engineering and mathematics free from domestic regulations, except those by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) to facilitate availability of high-end human resources for financial services and technology,” he said.

Besides, University Grants Commission (UGC), which is the higher education regulator in India, has also notified the UGCs Academic Collaboration between Indian and Foreign Higher Education Institutions to offer Twinning Programme, Joint Degree and Dual Degree and Regulations, 2022 – this will be to facilitate international collaboration with foreign higher educational institutions (FHEIs), the minister said.

Also, the World Class Institutions Scheme was launched in 2017 to enable higher education institutions in the country to have affordable world-class academic and research facilities. The regulatory framework of the scheme provides for identifying 10 institutions each from the public and private category, to grant them the status of ‘Institution of Eminence’ (IoE).

So far, 12 institutions have been notified as IoEs, including eight institutions from the public category and four from private. “The government is committed not only to retain students passing out of premier educational institutions in the country, but also provide attractive educational and research opportunities to non-resident Indians within the country. We have also sanctioned establishment of research parks at the IITs in Madras, Bombay, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Gandhinagar as well as IISc in Bengaluru to augment the research ecosystem,” the response stated.