‘As bilateral ties deepen, more Indian students could head to Russia’ said the headline (Business Standard 6 December 2025). The story got me thinking about how the concept of international education has transformed over the last three decades.
When I graduated from IIT Madras almost half of my class (of 1977) went to the US for higher studies. Some of them did an MS while many did their PhD. Almost all of them, barring a few, got full aid and financial support. If you were to do a survey among that cohort graduating from prestigious colleges around India, you will find they were heading out to USA or to UK (Mahatma Gandhi too studied in University College London). And most of them did not come back.
Why did a large number go abroad? Was it because our educational system was broken? I suppose it was a combination of factors. Yes, for some subjects our Indian universities and institutes of higher learning were ill equipped. But that was only part of reason. The bigger reason was the lifestyle that was assured to someone with a master’s degree or a PhD in the US was not something that could be matched in India.
But things started changing around two decades ago.
Post liberalization we saw the upper income segment becoming wealthy and ready to invest in the education of their wards. While US and UK were the desired destinations, other countries emerged as viable options. Canada, Australia, Singapore and even Ukraine. Ukraine?
I was at Indore for a literature event and I got the chance to speak with one of the organizers who happened to be a doctor. He explained that he had got admission to one of the medical colleges of Karnataka but got scared hearing about the intense ‘ragging’ that freshers were subjected to. He decided to go to Ukraine to do his medical undergraduate degree, equivalent to our MBBS. He returned and then went on to do his masters in two subjects, in Karnataka and in Tamil Nadu. So here is the case of someone who went abroad not with the plan of settling down but with a clear agenda of returning to India.
Yet another friend’s son had completed his under-graduate degree in engineering and was fascinated by the field of robotics. I got him to meet with a few of my friends who were in that sphere. All of them advised my friend’s son to try and do a masters in robotics, preferably from Germany. He did do a masters in robotics, but also managed to land a plum assignment in Munich. His parents are wondering if he will ever come back to India.
I remember discussing the issue of lack of seats (or opportunities) in the more in-demand Indian colleges and institutes of higher learning for deserving students. One of my friends told me that she would have wanted her daughter to do her undergraduate education in India if only she could get into St Stephen’s of Delhi. That did not happen. And just as Mr Narayana Moorthy of Infosys had said in an interview, Cornell was a backup option for his son (if he did not get into one of the IITs).
A lot is happening on the education front in India. We have a great amount of CSR money going into setting up of world class universities, run on for-profit basis. ISB was a pioneer as far as management education was concerned. I am sure at least 50% of those getting into ISB would have otherwise headed to USA or UK or Australia or Canada. We have seen the growth of universities like Krea, Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar, Ashoka, Jindal etc. It is likely that some of the students in these world class universities may have headed abroad if the viable Indian option had not emerged.
While some of the parents are worried about sending their children abroad at a young age of 17 or 18, I know of some who think this is an essential part of growing up.
What was once the preserve of UK and USA is no longer so. I was surprised to see countries like Ukraine (till it became a war zone), Georgia, Krgyz Republic, Czech Republic, China and even Kazakhastan have started attracting thousands of Indian students.
Some of them attract international students, and charge high fees to ensure that they can cross subsidize the fees for their own citizens. Some of them offer scholarships, want the brighter students to stay back and add value to their economy.
I am sure Russia too will join this list of countries.
Indian parents are also becoming more discerning. It is not just one size fits all. There are many options out there, for different streams of education, in different countries. What works for STEM may not work for industrial or automotive design. What works for medicine may not work for furniture design.
With the help of counsellors, who often charge a bomb, parents and their daughters (and sons) are navigating these wide oceans wisely. I am sure we will see many of them coming back. But there will be many who may in fact want to stay back in Germany or even Russia.
Appeared originally in Business Standard December 2025.