New Delhi: India is losing far more students to overseas universities than it is attracting from abroad, with around 25 Indians leaving the country for every one international student coming in, according to a report released by the NITI Aayog.
The ‘Internationalisation of Higher Education in India Report’ released Monday by NITI Aayog vice-chairman Suman Bery, noted that India hosted 46,878 inbound international students in 2021–22 while sending over 11.59 lakh students abroad, a number that climbed to 13.36 lakh by 2024, highlighting a persistent and widening “imbalance” in student mobility.
“The current trend of internationalisation in Indian higher education is largely skewed towards promoting international exposure through outbound student mobility. This has contributed significantly to brain drain,” the report states.
Prepared in collaboration with IIT Madras, the Association of Indian Universities, and global education services firm Acumen, the report notes that the imbalance between inbound and outbound student mobility reflects India’s challenges in retaining domestic talent and attracting international students.
The observations comes at a time when India is actively pursuing measures to internationalise its higher education system, in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which encourages allowing foreign universities to establish campuses and enabling top Indian higher education institutions to expand abroad, aiming to boost global engagement and position the country as a preferred destination for students and research.
The report highlights that the financial impact of going abroad is huge. It cites the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showing that outward remittances under the ‘studies abroad’ component of the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS)—that allows Indian residents to send money abroad for education and other permitted purposes—rose over 2,000 percent, from Rs 975 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 29,000 crore in 2023-24.
“This outflow is equivalent to around 53 percent of India’s total Union higher education budget of about Rs 55,000 crore for 2023-24,” it stated.
While commending policy measures under the NEP 2020, including the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines for setting up foreign campuses in India and dual or joint programmes between Indian and international universities, the report states: “At the same time, the scale of outbound student mobility highlights the urgency for systemic and institution-level strategies to strengthen India’s capacity to attract, retain, and support international academic and research collaborations, as well as student and faculty inflows.”
Missed opportunity
Emphasising that India stands at the cusp of a unique demographic advantage, with one of the world’s youngest populations and an average age of 28.4 years, the report cautions that a large number of skilled and educated youth are choosing to settle abroad in pursuit of better opportunities.
“This reduces the pool of capable individuals available to drive India’s development. If not addressed, the continued outflow of talent will hinder India’s ability to fully leverage its demographic dividend,” it states.
The report further highlights that the outmigration of skilled students and researchers diminishes India’s potential to build a strong indigenous research and development ecosystem.
“This not only hampers innovation and knowledge creation within the country but also increases dependency on foreign technologies and limits India’s ability to address its unique socio-economic challenges through homegrown solutions. Hence, there is an urgent need to move towards ‘internationalisation at home’.”
It recommends that internationalisation should go beyond student mobility, bringing global standards, practices, and perspectives into Indian campuses.
“This includes international faculty engagement, joint research programmes, credit transfer mechanisms, and culturally rooted yet globally aligned pedagogy. By doing so, India can retain its talent, attract foreign students, build knowledge capital, and reduce dependency on external systems, turning its higher education sector into a true engine for national transformation and global influence,” the report states.
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Barriers in attracting students
The report highlights several structural and systemic barriers that limit India’s ability to attract and retain international students, including infrastructure gaps, visa and regulatory hurdles, limited student support services, rigid curricula, unclear scholarship processes, weak global visibility, lack of strategic diplomatic alignment, and underutilised public-private partnerships.
“Hence, critical reform in domains such as infrastructure development, curriculum innovation, industry partnerships and research expansion that are linked to short, medium and long-term implementation strategies is vital to increase Inbound Mobility to higher levels,” it states.
The report proposes launching a ‘Vishwa Bandhu Scholarship’ for international students pursuing two-year Master’s programmes, offering stipends, tuition support, research grants, accommodation, travel allowances, health insurance, and study-linked internships, modelled on global best practices.
It also suggested supporting the top five IITs, IIMs and central universities to run 6-8 week international summer schools, hosting up to 500 students annually—especially from the Global South—combining academics, research exposure, field immersion and Indian cultural experiences to boost inbound student mobility.
Other recommendations include revamping the ‘Study in India’ initiative into a one-stop, centrally coordinated and brand-driven platform to support international students across all stages—from pre-departure and transit to stay, integration and return.
It calls on universities to adopt global standards for housing, campus safety, academic support and counselling, along with language assistance, mentorship programmes and multicultural activities, to ensure smoother integration and a more supportive campus experience for foreign students.
Retaining Indian talent
The report cites China’s Thousand Talents Programme (TTP), which successfully attracted skilled researchers and professionals back to China, and South Korea’s ‘Brain Return 500 Project’, aimed at reversing brain drain by encouraging Korean experts abroad to return home.
It recommends launching the ‘Vishwa Bandhu Fellowship’, an international programme aimed at attracting and retaining top researchers, faculty and professionals, especially from the diaspora, through flexible engagement models, seamless onboarding, and tangible incentives to support high-impact research and long-term collaboration.
Top 100 NIRF-ranked universities and all Institutes of National Importance (INIs) should actively pursue international academic collaborations through a mix of short- and long-term initiatives, with a focus on long-term, sustainable partnerships with foreign universities.
“Such collaborations can significantly enhance the academic reputation, global visibility, and international appeal of Indian HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) by offering high-quality programmes aligned with global standards. Over time, this approach will contribute to the emergence of globally competitive, world-class universities within India,” the report notes.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Is it possible to get the details of which countries these 46878 students came from . . .and to which countries these 11.59 Lacs students went . .?
What a revelation by NITI ! . Brain drain is happening since 70s. this debate used to happen throughout 80s and 90s. Nation has failed to retain its talent!