STRATEGIES TO HELP YOU STAY ABROAD AFTER STUDIES

More Indians are now going abroad for higher studies with plans to stay and work. But living costs, the lack of job opportunities and the burden of education loans could often pose a problem. Assess the opportunities and be practical before making such a decision

- Aaron Varghese Charly

Going abroad for higher studies has become common; the recent trend now is to stay back and take up a job in the country. Sample this: From 2019 to 2023 (till October 2023), the number of Indian students who went to study abroad increased from 586,337 to 765,411, according to data from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Of course, some countries are more popular than the others. From 2019 to 2023, the number of Indian students who received study permits in Canada rose 95 per cent from 218,540 to 427,085, according to data from Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada (IRCC).

Zhran Varghese, 30, who studied MBA in Canada from March 2020 to December 2021, and is now back in Kerala, said that 90 per cent of his peers who went from India to Canada for education, preferred to stay back and looked for a job opportunity there.

But going abroad to study and then hoping to stay back is not easy for multiple reasons, such as huge cost and lack of job opportunities.

Most students bank on an education loan, as there are fewer scholarships available at the undergraduate level compared with what is available for masters’.

Says Charushilla Narula Bajpai, a Delhi-based career counsellor and college planner, and founder director of UniversityConnection.in: “There are fully funded central and international scholarships available at the graduate level, although they may be less common compared to scholarships available for post graduation. This is true for most countries. However, the US offers most merit-based scholarships at the undergraduate level.”

However, those who fail to find a job can face difficulty, as the education loan could become a burden. Says Zhran: “It was challenging for those who stayed back to find a job that met their expectations. Many of them took education loans and the pressure of repayment made them settle for jobs that didn’t interest them.”