Opinion How protectionist politics is reshaping Indians’ education abroad

Still, the study-abroad dreams of Indians are quietly rewritten, as (higher) education becomes one of the first major casualties of a global world order turning inward. Protectionist politics and a lurch towards the political right in the liberal-democratic global North are reorienting outward migratory choice preferences for Indian students.

Data shows that for the first time in five years, the number of Indian students heading to Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom fell together in 2024. Canada saw a 40 per cent reduction in study permits issued to Indians during the first half of the year. The UK recorded a 14 per cent drop. Even the US, usually insulated by its brand appeal, recorded a near 2 per cent decline. While the pandemic years brought a momentary pause, this dip feels different. It does not stem from border closures or global crises; rather, it is prompted by policy that is deliberate, targeted, and politically convenient.

By the late 20th century, most liberal-democratic nations in the West opened their doors to Indian and Chinese students. It was soft power in motion, anchored through knowledge diplomacy, helping India and Indians explore opportunities abroad while contributing towards a skilled service industry-driven workforce.

Resurgent nationalist politics, a backlash against globalisation tightening its grip from Westminster to Washington, have changed things. The Trump administration is already threatening some of the elite institutions in the US, including Harvard, to make international student mobility to these institutions difficult if they don’t toe the government’s ideological line. Similar interventions in Canada include ending the fast-track Student Direct Stream program. It has also announced plans to reduce the number of temporary residents to 5 per cent of its population by 2026.

Once synonymous with people-to-people driven cultural globalisation, international student mobility has become the victim of domestic politics, immigration fears and economic populism. At this point, a more profound question for countries like India arises: If international student mobility continues to get curtailed, what is next for those exploring opportunities abroad?

For Indians, a foreign degree is a way to an economically stable future, more so for the people of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. It is much more than mere prestige.

This is reflected in the student’s choice of courses abroad. Latest trends have indicated that more Indian students have opted for short-term, skill-oriented master’s programs from multiple countries like the UK and Canada, where post-study work permits once let cost-benefit calculations work for them. These may not have been the top-end institutions, but they promised a way into the foreign labour market.

Now, newer countries like Germany, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, the UAE, Thailand, Poland, and the Philippines are increasingly being considered destination countries for Indian students. Their increasingly attractive features include lower tuition fees, fairly established immigration procedures, and growing job markets.

Apply Board’s RP Pulse reports show that nearly 50 per cent of surveyed education recruiters placed Germany as one of the top destinations, while 12 per cent more students expressed interest in Ireland as compared with 2011. Interestingly, as per the Ministry of Higher Education, international student enrolments from Thailand rose from 25,100 to over 30,000 between 2019 and 2022.

Poland has surprisingly emerged as a major educational hub with international student numbers tripling in the last decade, reaching an all-time high of 102,200 in the 2022-23 academic year. Today, nearly one in 10 university students in Poland comes from abroad.

In the Philippines, it’s Indian students who are changing the landscape. Among the country’s top five source markets for foreign enrolments in 2022, India led with 16,010 students, thus indicating not only a change in destination but also in expectancies: More students are looking for rather flexible, accessible, and secure futures beyond traditional Western territories.

India has over 1,000 universities and approximately 40,000 colleges, but it still ranks 90th in the world in terms of ensuring quality higher education. Further, India spends only 0.6 per cent of its GDP on higher education, which is very low compared to the global spending average. Youth unemployment amongst the higher educated students has also continued to rise over the last decade.

An increasing number of private universities have reacted to these demands by positioning themselves as globally-aligned, liberal arts-friendly choices; many offering dual degrees, foreign collaborations, and international faculty to mirror the experience once sought overseas. These institutions, however, remain inaccessible for financial and geographical reasons in a deeply unequal, low-cost dependent education scenario for the majority of Indians. On the other hand, public institutions still struggle with inadequate funding, outdated curricula, and a deficiency of faculty. Their state of education has contributed significantly to the disillusionment of the Indian youth.

As countries like the US, the UK and Canada make student mobility more difficult and elite universities become new targets for political establishments in the ideological battle, newer education destinations will take time to emerge for Indians.

(Ankur Singh contributed to this article)

The writer is Professor of Economics and Dean, IDEAS, Office of InterDisciplinary Studies, Director, Centre for New Economics Studies, Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities