Study Abroad Aspirants From India - 2016

Study abroad aSpirantS From india

Survey report

june, 2016

Study Abroad: Survey of Indian Students

2careerS360 reSearch 3careerS360 reSearch


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project editor B Mahesh Sarma

project coordinator rajaram Sukumar

research inputs Gagan parida

art Director anshul Sharma

Deputy art Director rajesh chawla

ExEcutIvE SummAryl India sends over 0.1 million students to study abroad every year

l the growth rate is around 17% per annum over the last decade

l uS continues to dominate the horizon with nearly 50% of the sample opting for it

l about 80% of students take their tests before they begin to apply

l 64% of students apply within the first two years of graduation

l 40% seek admission immediately after graduation

l MS remains the most preferred degree that students seek

l the first quartile students mostly seek admissions abroadMale

76.29%Female

23.66%

others

0.05%

GEndEr ProfIlE

The Indian study abroad market is still predominantly skewed in favour of male students. Nearly 75% of the respondents is males. Even domesti-cally, issues of safety, cultural taboos and social pressures still prevent or restrict higher education opportuni-ties for women and the same gets reflected here. Though the numbers appear to increase from last year (which was 81% and 19%), India still has a long way to go.

QuIck tAkE

lcolleges which are ‘women-only’ do have a good opportunity to seek out wealthy, but conservative Indian parents to assure high quality education for their wards.

l a special scholarship/bursary for women students could also be an added attraction to get higher quality students as well as increase diversity.

It Is stIll men all the way!




GrAduAtE ScorES

The positive discrimination policies of the state as well as overall lack of opportunities have resulted in a substantial chunk of 75-90 percen-tile students not getting the course of their choice in India. The survey results too reflect the same. Just over 60% of the respondents belong to the 70-90 categories. Nearly 33% belong to 80-90 category. However, it is interesting to note that the per-centage of respondents between 90-100 is not substantial.

QuIck tAkE

ltarget the 80-90 percentile students. they are in the top 15% of the class but still do not get courses of their choice.

l the really top quartile students seek and gain admissions directly from universities and they are primarily driven by scholarships.

71% to 80%

31%

81% to 90%

33%

upto 50%

7%

4% 91% to 100%

61% to 70%

13%

51% to 60%

12%

top scorers are on the look out for better choIces

GrAduAtIon yEAr

Most study abroad decisions hap-pen within three years of gradua-tion. But the interesting trend here is that the number of students seek-ing to go abroad immediately after their graduation has gone up from 14% in 2013 to 40% in 2016. And half of the respondents belong to the undergraduate stream (mean-ing they seek a first degree directly after school).

True to its nature, about 1/3rd of the respondents (30.89%) have also graduated at least 2- 4 years before they apply. They continue to form a sizeable cohort of aspirants.

QuIck tAkE

l Incorporate undergraduate recruitment plans in your communication schemes.

l Do not ignore the Masters’ students from India. they still constitute 1/3rd of the cohort.

l the profile of the Indian student is going through a downward revision. they are getting younger and their preferences appear to be fluid. catch them young.

40%

1995-20092010-201420152016

24%30%

6%

average profIle of the IndIan student Is gettIng younger




Month-wise work experience it/ites Manufacturing education consulting energy

Upto 6 Months 19.14% 19.44% 16.67% 16.00% 4.76%

7 to 12 Months 18.52% 25.00% 18.18% 12.00% 19.05%

13 to 18 Months 14.20% 11.11% 7.58% 24.00% 14.29%

19 to 24 Months 12.35% 12.50% 16.67% 12.00% 19.05%

More than 24 Months 35.80% 31.94% 40.91% 36.00% 42.86%

ExPErIEncE ProfIlE

Energy sector graduates are the most mature. Very few seek to study immediately after their graduation. Just 3% of the respondents expressed interest.

As in all other sectors, nearly 20% of the respondents wants to move abroad immediately, within a year of graduation.

Manufacturing appears to be the biggest sector where the candi-dates seek to move out and earn degree within a year of joining the sector. Nearly 46% of candidates out of the sample is from this sector.

Across the sectors, most experienced students work for about two years before they decide to study abroad. The fact that most of the Master’s degrees mandate or encourage prior work experience contributes to this phenomenon.

experIence counts but freshers on the rIse

QuIck tAkE

lFresh graduates too are seeking to go abroad. plan for them.

l Specialized programme seekers are on the rise. Generic degrees might not work any more.

tESt tAkEn

Most candidates invariably take the test before or during their application process. GMAT is the most popular test as 61% of the respondents admits to have taken the test. We have also calculated the percentage of the test takers for each test individually.

Across the board, about 80% of the students take the tests by the time they begin the second month of their application process. When we conducted the survey between September-October, just about 20% of the candidates was yet to take the test.

students prepare well before they begIn the process

QuIck tAkE

lGMat is the most popular aptitude test.

l toeFL still remains the better known english language test.

l pearson vue is yet to make its presence felt.

yes

19%

no

81%

yes

14%

no

86%

taken GMat taken Gre taken toeFL taken IeLtS

yes

36%no

64%

yes

18%

no

82%




united States

54%

canada

11%

others

13%

Germany

8%India

8%uK

6%

united States

canada united Kingdom

Germany australia others

66%

20%16% 15% 15%

35%

PrEfErrEd locAtIon

Across individual years and cumu-latively the USA remains the most preferred country with 66% of the respondents preferring that nation. Interestingly Canada appears to be second most-preferred nation, though the number of students finally seeking admission in that country is far lesser than that of the UK and Australia.

Thanks to the increased visa restrictions in the last few years, the UK which still retains the third posi-tion as the most attractive nation, has been relegated to the fifth place with just about 5.75% of the respon-dents seeking to go to that country in the last year.

QuIck tAkE

lcanadian universities undersell their programmes in India. With its innate immigration-friendly image, this country has substantial potential to recruit from India.

l Germany too is getting attractive to Indian students thanks to the low fee/no fee image and the high quality of engineering education offered there.

the land of the free Is stIll the most attractIve

MS MBa MSc phD exec-MBa others

58%

28%

17%

5% 4.75%8%

MS

50%

MBa

26%

MSc

9%

others

7%

4%2%

exec-MBa

phD

PrEfErrEd courSE

Between current year and cumula-tive MS remains the most preferred course with 50 and 57% of the stu-dents respectively opting for the same. MBA is a close second with a quarter of students expressing preference to pursue the course. All other programmes appear to be in single digits. The only exciting find is that between the last two cycles of this survey Executive MBA has picked up growth indicating the need for re-skilling from expe-rienced engineers. This correlates well with the exponential rise in the number of engineers in the country over the last few years.

QuIck tAkE

lpay attention to named MBa programmes and specialized MBas. they appear to have traction.

l executive/non-full-time programmes are finding more traction.

ms remaIns the most popular degree yet agaIn




ScholArShIP

An interesting finding is that the percentage of students who will not pursue studies without schol-arship is now down to 38%. When we began the survey exercise almost 81% of the students needed some form of scholarship. That figure now stands at a respectable 62.36%. In other words, scholarship is no longer the defining criterion for pursuing studies aboard. The easy availability of loans and increased income levels have positively contributed to this phenomenon.

fEE

India still remains a developing country. An over-whelming 73% of students said they would want the full fees to remain within 50K. So any cost above 30k per month might be a dampener.

yes

62%no

38%

More than 100000

5%

50000-100000

22%

upto 50000

73%

QuIck tAkE

lScholarship is not the single driving factor now for a good proportion of students.

l rather than full fee scholarships partial bursaries is the way to get more good students.

QuIck tAkE

lKeep the fee affordable.

l nowadays costs must be justified to the aspirants much more.

money matters! fees are stIll a consIderatIon

notes

With over 8 million students entering the higher education realm each year, India’s demand for higher education is burgeoning. And, as GER improves at the primary and secondary school levels, the market size would only grow exponentially.

Careers360 conducted an email-based survey on all the registered participants on the Study aboard portal during September for the 2016 intake and beyond. At least 7462 response were recorded of which about 249 were discarded for want of authen-ticity or completeness.

This has been an annual feature at Careers360 and this is the third edition of the survey. The previous years’ reports can be obtained by writing to us at research@careers360.

The survey was directed by Anupam Sinha. Gagan Parida and his team coordinated the research and data analysis.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Do write in at [email protected]

about the surveycareers360Careers360 - The Education Hub: A data-enabled and technology-driven educa-tional products and services company, Careers360 seamlessly integrates millions of student and institutional data points with the user-generated preferences of its more than 8 million monthly visitors. Moving ahead, we build sophisticated prediction and recommendation prod-ucts for students to achieve career plans, based on their interests and abilities.

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Study Abroad Aspirants From India - 2016

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