According to data revealed by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in the Rajya Sabha, 2.61 lakh students managed to travel abroad for higher education despite the travel restrictions in 2020. This number, however, represented a fall of over 50% from 5.88 lakh in 2019 which was a four-year high.
Similarly, Gujarat witnessed a 52% drop from 2019, with the student numbers falling from 48,051 to 23,156. This contributed to an overall 9% of students from Gujarat who went abroad in 2020. The state maintained the same ration in the first two months of this year.
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Ahead of Gujarat was Andhra Pradesh sent the highest number of students abroad with 35,614 students, followed by Punjab with 33,412 students and Maharashtra with a total of 29,079 students.
As per 2016 data, the number of students who went abroad for further studies had doubled from 24,775 in 2016 to 48,051 in 2019.
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An immigration and visa consultant in Gujarat, Jay Trivedi said that the COVID-19 pandemic had certainly impacted a lot of students planning on pursuing graduate and postgraduate studies abroad.
He added that around 15,000 students go to the US and Canada alone every year. This number has been affected to some extent due to travel restrictions along with other factors.
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He further explained that this trend may continue for the next few years as countries like Germany, Australia and some other countries in Europe have emerged as great study destinations for students interested in specialised courses.
Source: The Times of India