Why lakhs of Indians go abroad to study

News: The report estimates that there has been an increase in students traveling abroad for higher education every year.

What does the data suggest?

About 8 lakh students travel abroad for higher education every year and spend $28 billion, or 1% of the country’s GDP, on this. About $6 billion in fees, out of this, go to foreign universities. This is about Rs 45,000 crore, which is adequate capital to start and run 10 new IITs, IISERs or JNUs, or any such elite institution every year.

The recent CAG report, said that the eight new IITs started in the period 2008-2009 are not doing well at all. The clutch of new private universities has also not managed to halt the exodus of students and wealth.

What are the reasons behind the increase in students going abroad for studies?

Jobs: Income tax department data shows that there are about 3 crore taxpayers and about 10 lakh fresh jobs available each year. There are only about 3 lakh “good” jobs which pay Rs 5 lakh per annum (LPA) or more, and 30,000 “posh” jobs which pay a starting salary of Rs 10 lakh-plus per annum. Of the 3 lakh good jobs, about 1 lakh come from the IT majors.

Unemployment: As per MHRD data, about 45,000 colleges in India graduated about 30 lakh students last year. In total, there are around 1 crore unemployed graduates seeking jobs. This is 10 times the number of salaried jobs, 30 times the good jobs, and 300 times the number of posh jobs available every year.

Job Concentration: Good jobs are concentrated to top colleges like IITs and IIMs, and emerging elite private universities. Companies go to these branded colleges, universities to recruit students. It leads to a race of competitive exams, coaching, and placement.

This explains the reason why most of the students chose to study abroad.

What are the reasons behind a few jobs in the public sector in India?

-Outdated labor laws, inadequate investments, and bureaucratic control.

-Most job descriptions in the public sector have remained stagnant since independence.

-Also, there is a huge difference between student studies and their practical implementation. For example;

an ICMR study estimates that air pollution caused about 1.7 million deaths and Rs 2.6 lakh crore worth of lost output. If there was professional know-how and business models, this problem could have been converted into a Rs 26,000 crore industry of measuring, mitigating, and managing air pollution and employing 26,000 people in posh jobs.

What should be done?

Elite central institutions, the IITs, the IISERs, JNU should look at the problems of the day, formalize them, and convert them into business models and job definitions which offer valuable solutions.

They should then have supported local institutions and entrepreneurs in the deployment of these solutions. But, all this is missing. Instead, they have chosen to become a highly unequal system of delivering the benefits of science to the people.

Source: This post is based on the article “Why lakhs of Indians go abroad to study” published in the Indian Express on 25th February 2022.