New Delhi, AUGUST 28, 2004
TNN
It's the buzzword among grads and undergrads in India, and as figures
show, the efforts of colleges across the world to woo them is paying
rich dividends. Consider some of the stats.
Australia, which is perhaps the hottest destination these days, issued
an estimated 7,700 student visas in 2003 up from 3,500 in 2002; Canada
issued 2,600 in 2003, 500 up from 2002 and UK registered a 20 per cent
increase from 11,707 in 2002 to 13,770 in 2003.
And even the US, with its more stringent visa norms for students, has
hardly seen any fall in numbers with total F1 student visas issued to
Indians between October 2003 and February 2004 registering a small decrease
to 3,801 (3,898) compared to the same period in the previous year.
Obviously, the Indian student is spoilt for choice with other fresh
destinations like France, Germany, New Zealand, Italy and Scotland too
eyeing them.
The interesting trend amidst this problem, perhaps, of plenty is that
the profile of the typical Indian student seeking admission overseas
is changing too. "There's a clear understanding of their needs
and more maturity," feels Vijaya Khandavilli, educational advisor,
US Educational Foundation in India (USEFI).
"With the global movement becoming easier, students are often
coming back to India to work after their studies. This is partly because
of greater professional opportunities in the country along with the
social and family security cushion," she adds.
While earlier Indian students typically enrolled in foreign graduate
programmes immediately after undergrad studies, they are now joining
the workforce first and later considering higher education after a couple
of years.
"This is partly because Indian companies offer global job opportunities
and also because cross border movement is no longer as difficult as
it used to be," feels Khandavilli. In fact, there have been cases
of students opting not to go to top courses in the US even after they
got admissions.
"This year, there has been a case of a student getting selected
for MBA at Cornell and opting out because Harvard was his first choice.
He now plans to try again next year.
Another student was selected for a public health programme at Harvard
but chose to defer the admission till next year because he wants to
negotiate for a full bank loan.
"This student had even got an US visa," she says. Many students
in India are actually thinking out of the box to stay back in India
and take on offbeat career options.
An example is Dipinder Sekhon, CEO and director, of two-year old KritiKal
Solutions, a start-up incubated by the Technology Business Incubation
Unit (TBIU) of IIT Delhi under the Foundation for Innovation and Technology
Transfer (FITT).
An IIT-Delhi graduate of the 2002 batch, he wanted to stay back in
India and do something challenging rather than go abroad for further
studies.
"The support that I got within the IIT-D community helped me make
up my mind. IITians go abroad either because they don't find technical
jobs which are challenging enough in India or because it is tough to
go to market with research ideas and projects. In our case, TBIU gave
us the opportunity to do hi-tech work which we could not have within
a big company. Not only are we getting support from our faculty members
but can also tap into our alumni network," says Sekhon.
KritiKal has more than doubled its strength over the last two years,
including ex-employees of McKinsey and Microsoft.