Studying abroad is set to grow in the coming years as international borders reopen with the Covid situation easing,  and according to the new forecast, over 18 lakh Indian students are set to opt for foreign colleges and universities by 2024.

While the demand for studying abroad is increasing besides the outflow, student expenditure is soaring and is likely to touch $75-85 billion by 2024, which will be an increased rate of more than 2 times from 2019.

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It is now expected to regain momentum as things become normal while the sector faced a stunted growth in 2020-21 as international borders were closed to combat Covid, as per the report by Bengaluru-based market research firm RedSeer.

“We are bullish about this segment’s growth in the coming years. Our research shows that the total number of Indian students studying abroad will stand at around 18 lakh by 2024,” said Abhishek Gupta, engagement manager at RedSeer.

In 2019, nearly 7,00,000 students applied to study abroad.

“In 2019 alone, around 420k students headed out but the total number of applicants was around 1.7 times. This colossal increase is due to factors like rising in GDP in the past two decades leading to more consumption and awareness about education abroad,” Gupta mentioned.

The massive demand that this segment is witnessing is shown by the growth in the outflow rates that had outpaced domestic student growth by 6 times in 2016-19.

“Our research shows that currently, 770k Indian students are studying abroad from 440,000 in 2016 which is a 20 percent growth. On the other hand, the growth in the domestic region has been merely 3 percent when compared to the demand for education abroad,” the analyst informed.

(With inputs from IANS)