Campus Abroad

The Week has a cover story on the increasing trend of Indians going abroad for their studies. This trend was limited to Masters (for the middle class) and Under Grad (for the elite) is now spreading fast. Newspapers and education counselors should be a happy lot as they are the direct beneficiaries of such a phenomenon. The lesser known universities court students by giving attractive ads in the newspapers.

Why are so many Indian students’or their parents ready to pay these exorbitant sums? Even education loans have to be repayed some day. "It is because the seats available for higher education in quality institutes in India are very few, compared with the number of students aspiring for them," said Vivek Srinivasan, spokesman for University 21 Global, a Singapore-based online business school, which has been strongly targeting Indian students. "There are 958 MBA programmes in India, but only about 20 of them guarantee a good job. Those who don’t get into those 20 are bound to, if they have the money, look beyond Indian shores."