Indian Students Choosing UK Again for Higher Education

For the first time in a decade, the tilt has shifted. There has always been a keen interest for students in India to move abroad for higher studies, but this trend had started to go downhill ever since 2012. The United Kingdom is one of the most popular study abroad destination for higher studies. Through the following article lets know why are “Indian Students Choosing UK Again for Higher Education”?

to move abroad for higher studies, but this trend had started to go downhill ever since 2012. The United Kingdom is one of the most popular study abroad destination for higher studies. Through the following article lets know why are “Indian Students Choosing UK Again for Higher Education”?

At its peak, in 2010-11, up to 39,090 Indian students had listed in faculties and universities within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but this was when the downfall started. This fall in the number of Indian students going to the UK might have started in 2012 but has been getting worse and worse every year ever since then, with the worst numbers seen in 2016-17 session.

This might’ve been a result of the not so warm welcome received by the students from foreign countries or signs of growing distances among them in an era full of peril. But this history of distrust and enmity has finally come to an end and the numbers have started to go back up again with a very significant increase from 16,550 students in a 2016-17 academic year to the 19,750 students in 2017-18.

On the surface, this might seem like a small step up, but you need to take into account that these numbers have been regularly going down for a decade now! And this step up starts a new age of better relations between the nations and a higher standard of living and care for the students involved. This climb in numbers to no one’s surprise also corresponds with a 33% increase in the number of tier 4 visas (Visa for sponsored studies) granted to Indian nationals from the UK embassy.

So what courses do the majority of these students enroll in? Well, studies have shown that over half the Indian students were following post-graduate degrees within the last year, with courses of Business and engineering remaining as the highest 2 areas of interest for them. For example, at Newcastle University, Computer Science, Business, Finance, Engineering, and Biosciences are the most common courses pursued.

Seeing these interests growing again, universities are making special efforts like exploring Tie-ups with Indian universities, offering to give joint PhDs and offering more and more opportunities for scholarships for Indian students. Another big reason for this shift is the rapid increase in work opportunities in the countries along with their great quality of education.

Providing enticing work opportunities

One of the major reasons for the decrease in students from 2010-2017 was due to the withdrawal of the post-study work visa within the UK. With students having to go right back to their home country right after finishing their curriculum, they didn’t have any opportunity to get any work experience in their field of work.

This resulted in the number of students from India going as low as half of what it used to be. However, these practices have changed now with the Post-Brexit UK looking to extend its international student intake levels from the current 460,000 to 600,000 annually by 2030.

And with this change in post-study work visa choices for international students, results have started to show and the UK has once more started to look like a hub for international studies for students all over the world as it once was.