Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath has a message for Indian students planning to study abroad: 'Reconsider'

Zerodha and True Beacon founder Nikhil Kamath has some important advice for Indian students going abroad for higher education, especially considering the current circumstances where some of the biggest tech companies are laying off employees in a bid to reduce costs. Kamath suggested that Indian students going abroad for educational pursuits should also look at universities that are set up in India.

“With rising interest rates in the west & mass firing in high-paid tech jobs, one must reconsider the new universities set up in India, which have improved tremendously," the Bengaluru-based entrepreneur wrote on Twitter. He also referred to the higher cost of education abroad at a time when central banks across the world are raising interest rates, which has significantly pushed up cost of education loan.

Explaining further, Kamath said, “It's one thing to go abroad to study and network, another to be saddled with crazy debt for life at 7-8%."


In his tweet, Kamath shared a chart curated by InvestyWise, which showed around 44.87 per cent increase since 2018 in Indian students visiting abroad to study.


According to the data provided by the Ministry of Education (MoE), the total number of Indian students who traveled abroad for the purpose of higher education has increased by 68.79% in the past year.

According to the data provided by Subhas Sarkar, the Minister of State for Education in the Lok Sabha, the number of Indians enrolled in foreign varsities increased from 4.44 lakh in 2021 to 7.5 lakh in 2022. He stated that around 7.5 lakh students went abroad in 2022 alone. The number of students who went abroad (7,50,365 students) rose 68.79 per cent as against 4,44,553 students in 2021.

The number of Indian nationals pursuing studies abroad increased from 4.54 lakh in 2017 to 5.17 lakh in 2018, according to the data.

He also clarified that while the Bureau of Immigration and Ministry of Home Affairs maintain departure and arrival data of Indians, there is no index for capturing the category of Indians going abroad for higher education.

There was also a significant rise in 2019 as well, with 5.86 lakh candidates leaving the country for higher education. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of Indian nationals in foreign varsities witnessed a severe dip in its record as only 2.59 lakh students registered for higher studies. The numbers saw a slight increase in 2021 with 4.44 lakh registrations.

Among the many countries, the popular study-abroad destinations included the US, UK, and Australia. Detailed information was shared by Subhas Sarkar, in a written response to a question by JD(U) MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh.