Where Are Kids Studying?

 Infographic: Minal Shetty

Studying abroad = USA. At least that’s it used to be. Over the years, the steady increase in students heading to America slowed down and, for the last academic year, took a steep drop.

But we haven’t stopped looking abroad: Overall, except for 2009-10, when there was a drop (recession, blah, blah), the number of students going abroad steadily increased. It’s just that the USA seems to have become less attractive to our young people and their parents. So where are all those students going?

UK colleges registered modest gains for several years before more than doubling Indian intake last year. Could be the number of partnerships and exchange programmes with Indian universities?

Australia has been the biggest gainer. Never a top choice for students even early this century, it shot into the reckoning in 2006-07 and, racism and tighter immigration laws issues be damned, has now become the single largest draw for Indian students.