Indian students: Studying in Canada, US, UK or Australia with study visa – Investing Abroad News

The shape of outbound mobility from India has changed throughout 2023, with the UK and US gaining notable share of Indian students, and Australia recording significant growth in Indian enrolments compared with 2022. ICEF Monitor, a dedicated market intelligence resource for the international education industry has published a report highlighting how Indian student mobility is changing in 2023.

Studying in Canada

Canadian institutions are challenged this year by a serious Canada-India diplomatic rift and its effect on the processing of Indian student visa.

During an October 2023 meeting of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM), Immigration Minister Marc Miller said that only five immigration staff remain in India working on the processing of Indian visa applications, down from 27 before the diplomatic crisis began. He reported that:

The target of processing 38,000 visas for Indians by December 2023 will not be met;

Only 20,000 visas will be processed due to “limited resources and staff”;

The backlog of yet-to-be-processed Indian visa applications will amount to 17,500 as of January 2024.

Miller said that Indian applicants should expect slower overall processing times and responses to enquiries due to limited resources within the department. However, last month India resumed the processing of entry, business, medical and conference visas for Canadian citizens.

India remains far and away the largest sending market for Canadian educators. There were just under 320,000 Indian students with active study permits at the end of December 2022, and these students made up 39.5% of Canada’s total foreign enrolment. The Indian student market for Canadian institutions has grown by 46% since 2019.

Studying in UK

Meanwhile, the UK granted just under 500,000 study visas for the year ending June 2023, and Indian students accounted for about 30% of that total. The nearly 143,000 visas granted to Indian students represents a year-over-year increase of 54% and puts India as the clear leading sender for the UK – a position it assumed about a year ago when it surpassed the historical leader, China, for the first time.

Studying in US

There are now almost as many Indian students in the US on active visas as Chinese students (253,631 vs. 262,992, respectively) according to new data from the Department of Homeland Security’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). Since 2020, Indian student numbers have grown by more than 30%, in contrast to a -29% contraction of the Chinese market.

Research conducted by IIE in spring 2023 revealed that US institutions are prioritising India as a recruitment focus, which can only help to boost Indian numbers. India was the top focus for institutions recruiting for both undergraduate (57%) and graduate (77%) programs.

Studying in Australia

Indian students are helping to drive the Australian international education sector’s post-pandemic recovery. Their numbers were up 34% in January-August 2023 compared with the same timeframe in 2022. Indian students now represent 17% of all international students in Australia, making them the second largest group of foreign students in the country after China (21%).