With nearly 1.9 million Indians now studying abroad, the demand for global higher education remains strong, but changing visa rules, rising costs and new study destinations are reshaping how students and families make their choices, says Vinu Warrier, Managing Partner and Founder, eduVelocity Global.

1.India now has close to 1.9 million students studying abroad, per MEA data — does that number surprise you, or does it match what you’re seeing on the ground?
Not at all. It certainly matches what we’re seeing on the ground. Interest in high-quality education, regardless of which country, etc., continues to ramp up, given the historical context of demand and supply. And the only thing that is changing is the destinations students go to, including increasing choices in India itself. However, as of now, we see no change in the interest in high-quality education among young people.

2. Canada still hosts the largest number of Indian students at over 4 lakh, but its 2026 study permit cap has been slashed to 408,000 overall. How is that changing the advice you give students?
At eduVelocity, for the last 11 years, our advice has been based on the best fit for each student, which means that our students who choose to go to Canada typically are going to the top 6 to 7 universities in the country.

And so our advice hasn’t changed. Our criteria for selecting your best fit university is still: a)program-driven; b) fit-driven in terms of your long-term goals. Canada is a great choice, given its world-class facilities, curricular structure, and relative geopolitical stability and immigrant friendliness compared to the United States, particularly.

We still advise you to find your best fit regardless of country as long as program quality and other variables important to your personal level are being met.

3. The US saw a sharp jump in Indian enrolments a few years back, but numbers have cooled since amid tighter visa scrutiny and new social media vetting rules. What’s the mood like among students eyeing the US right now?
So the mood is one of deep and very grave conflict in the minds of the students we work with. The US continues to be the world’s premier destination in terms of volume of high-quality higher education choices. However, the current administration in particular and the disastrous and inconsistent policy-making, particularly related to academic visa regulations, to temporary work visa regulations and policies, as well as green card and other policy combined with the plummeting confidence in student safety, security, particularly non-American or international students, and especially non-Caucasian students continues to set the US back as a higher education destination. Our thinking is certainly that as long as US academia continues to present students with high-quality options at the scale that they currently do, the US, will continue to remain or the US will certainly bounce back as a first-choice, higher education destination the moment, the current administration is replaced or the current policies are revoked and more student-friendly policies and immigrant-friendly policies come into play.

The answer is, for just like any other business or any other revenue generation that depends on client satisfaction and consumer interest. If the US is to view the revenue it generates through international higher education, which until a year or couple of years ago was its third largest export to the world, then the US needs to understand that it needs to promote itself as a friendly destination for its primary consumers. And the primary consumers of international education today continue to be Indians.

So, in short, Indian students do not need the US. They have other alternatives and more and more new alternatives emerging with astonishing pace and frequency. It is the US economy which continues, which continues to need, international students and Indian students.

4. We’re hearing Germany’s Indian student numbers jumped nearly 70% between 2022 and 2024, and Ireland grew by around 49%. Are these becoming genuine alternatives, or still a fallback for students who can’t crack the US or Canada?
For years, when Indian students thought about studying abroad, the picture was almost fixed — the US, the UK, Canada or Australia. These destinations symbolized global exposure, career opportunity and academic prestige. But quietly, over the last few years, that map has been changing.

Rising tuition fees, tighter visa rules and growing living costs in traditional English-speaking countries have forced families to look for smarter, more affordable options. What has emerged is a strong shift toward Europe — places that combine quality education with relatively manageable expenses.

Countries like Germany and Ireland have long been part of India’s overseas education story. What makes them more attractive today is not just reputation, but accessibility. Many public universities in Germany charge minimal tuition, while European governments actively promote international enrolments through scholarships and English-taught programs. Students now see Europe not as a backup option, but as a first choice that delivers strong academics without crushing debt.

5. Visa rejection rates have reportedly gone up across the US, UK, and Australia. What’s the most common reason you see applications getting turned down these days?
The most common reasons include providing unverified proof of tuition and living funds, doubt about intent to return home that includes no family income, no stable employment; and inconsistent documentation, including financial proof. 

6. With Canada capping new study permits at 155,000 and tightening PAL requirements, do you think the “safe bet” reputation Canada had for Indian students is starting to fade?
Much of the safe bet reputation Canada had was related to, uh, students who were seeking to migrate to Canada long-term in search of better life, better career and life opportunities. At eduVelocity, those typically do not tend to be our students. In terms of benefits to our students, basically it’s about certainly long-term viability in terms of immigration friendliness, as well as a better social security, in general, safety concerns, particularly compared to the United States.

So, I don’t think it was a safe bet for our students. It was certainly a bet wherein the ability to or long wherein long-term viability was a factor. And maybe some of the long-term viability factor is not really the primary consideration anymore for most of our students. It has more to do with the quality of the program, scholarship opportunities, etc. Other than that, nothing has faded, as far as our students are concerned.

7. A lot of families still treat a master’s abroad as a guaranteed ticket to a great job and eventually a green card or PR. How different is that reality today compared to five years ago?
I think at eduVelocity, we’ve always said, if you’re going for education, then your primary priority should be the quality of the program. If you’re going to the best programs in your fields of choice that lead to great careers, whether it is in the destination country you’ve studied at or in India or in any other country. So, for us, we separate outcomes from a Master’s program with long-term viability. If part of the outcome that a Master’s applicant is seeking is long-term viability, then certainly Canada still remains a good bet, for example. If it is a guaranteed job, certainly the Canadian economy does not compare to the US economy. But here again, one has to be pragmatic about decision-making. US offers more job opportunities, more career opportunities immediately upon completion of Master’s, but at the end of the day there is a long-term viability problem, and given the uncertain and constantly fluctuating nature of work visas, immigrant visas, as well as changes in policy in the US for e.g., students are certainly looking closely at career viability, not outcomes, but viability after they graduate from the Master’s program. So therefore, our Master’s applicants certainly are leaning more towards Western Europe and other destinations which allow long-term viability in a much more stable and predictable way, where also, depending on the program area, securing a job is not particularly difficult if you’ve gone to a well-ranked program.

8. Scholarships like the Vanier at CAD 50,000 a year exist, but most students still self-fund almost entirely. What’s one underused funding route Indian families don’t know enough about?
Every year at eduVelocity, for a cohort of 120 to 150 students, we generate about $5.5 million in scholarships. 70% of that money comes for our undergraduate applicants.

So, the one thing we feel parents and Indian families should know much more about, in terms of funding, is that there is a lot of money available, particularly in merit-based, work-study-based, and need-based scholarships that specific universities offer. Therefore it is extremely critical to choose a final list of universities to apply to, based specifically on scholarship consideration. This is something that many families do not seem to appreciate enough; we believe that your best bet of getting your studies funded is to go through the university itself.

And that remains the case, especially in terms of the volume of funding, that students are able to generate. So the same variables- early awareness of college requirements or application requirements, consistent work through high school or through undergrad studies in order to become competitive, in order to apply for the best-ranked undergrad and Master’s programs. Informed process of becoming competitive for the best-ranked programs, etc., is still is critical not only for securing admissions to high-ranked programs but also securing funding.

Now this part of it, I think many families need to understand better. Similarly, another piece of information that families seem not to have in depth is that overall affordability is a very different thing from funding. If you look at the US and Canada, sticker prices tend to be the highest. They also give the maximum amount of scholarship. If you look at our students, for example, our students who go for technology programs to universities like the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, we know from experience that if you’re academically competitive, you have every chance of securing up to 80% or even 100% funding from the university. So I think parents should look at family needs and focus more on the overall cost versus overall affordability, tuition costs, in addition to specific funding requirements. There are countries where the same quality of education is much, uh, more inexpensive. For example, any student applying for STEM fields to Germany at the Master’s level should not be looking at private universities, but should be looking at public where the tuition is paid for. And given that they have 20 hours of work permitted per week that they’re also able to generate a fair amount of funds towards living costs. Rather than looking at private universities and paying a lot of money for education in Germany.

So examples like this make it clear that scholarship funding is only one part of the funding puzzle. The more important part is how much do you end up paying from pocket, which begins with the question: what is the overall cost of education in a specific university or in a specific country?

9. With average Canadian tuition now around CAD 41,746 a year for international undergraduates, how are you seeing families rethink the return on investment for a foreign degree?
So I think our families and students measure return on investment from an overseas degree in the same way they always have for the last 11 years. The quality of the program and education, the cost of education, the ability to generate funding, and outcomes viability, whether that is career-related, academic, or the Master’s program or academic further higher education related, or long-term viability related. And from that point of view, cost is only one of the factors. So a change in cost only means that one variable has changed for our students, and they make decisions accordingly.

Certainly, there are more choices and, more inexpensive choices, with more and more countries presenting themselves in attractive ways to Indian students. So therefore, I think cost competitiveness is a serious criterion, whether it is an actual cost or whether it is cost mitigated through funding, that more and more countries and universities need to pay serious focus to.

10. QS projects around 8.5 million students globally studying abroad by 2030. Do you think India’s share of that number keeps growing, or do domestic options start pulling students back?

I think that India’s share of the number will keep growing till at least 2030 or 2035.  While certainly the landscape of Indian domestic jobs for Indian students is rapidly changing, especially with the entry of almost 30 international branch campuses in the next 3 years— 10 of which are already operational and actively recruiting students. However, the transition to adequate high-quality domestic choices, with credible institutions, proven outcomes, etc., remains a long way off.

Certainly in India, university students have started looking at universities like Ashoka and Plaksha and Shiv Nadar and others as part of their choice while including choices in the US, Canada, and other mainstream destinations. And certainly, every year our students do get put into both India as well as across the globe to such universities. However, the number of high-quality choices in India and the average history of results that Indian institutions or the new Indian privates are able to generate still remains a question mark. We have institutions like Masters’ Union, new institutions that are focused on niche program areas, etc. However, there’s a big difference between proven universities with rich and long track records of success and new universities. And so I think that transition is going to take at least a decade or two decades, assuming that Indian institutions continue to improve and more and more private options in India continue to emerge.

11. If a student came to you today choosing between the US, Canada, and an emerging option like Germany or Ireland, what questions should they actually be asking themselves before deciding?
Number one: What is my program interest based on my aptitudes and my career and academic goals?
Number two: Where in the world do universities offer the best-ranked programs in my fields of choice, uh, where the program is delivered in English? 
Number three: Where do I see myself shining, or where do I see myself graduating in the top 5% of my class depending on which university or which country I go to?
Number four: Affordability. Where can I get a higher-quality education opportunity at less cost, as well as overall pricing in terms of availability of scholarship, ability to work off campus and generate revenue towards my living expenses, etc.
Number five: Long-term viability in terms of my specific long-term interest, whether that is pursuing higher education or whether it is job opportunities.

And finally, obviously, if it is a country which is a good fit for the student, then the question of long-term viability should always be looked at. But the question of long-term viability in terms of permanent residency, green card equivalent, etc., is more is more of a concern for a Master’s applicant rather than an undergrad applicant.

12. What’s one piece of advice you wish every Indian parent understood before spending lakhs on a study-abroad dream for their child?
Choosing your best-fit higher education choices should be viewed, unlike most Indian parents tend to, as a consumer decision. At the end of the day, it is a question of how much it costs you and what is your best fit. Whether that opportunity happens 7,000 miles away or right in your backyard is less relevant than ensuring that you start by exploring all high-quality available options that your student is qualified for and competitive for, and do a rigorous pros and cons analysis, and then narrow it down.

I think the traditional debate between India or abroad is becoming less and less black and white and much more of a grey area, just like every other consumer decision that Indians have. It is no longer a question of whether India or abroad. The question is what is best return on investment in a highly personalized way for each student? What is the cost versus what are the benefits? And all of it tailored to individual students’ goals and outcomes, academic and career goals. That’s what people miss.