International education : Fact vs fiction

It is a fact that there are far too many myths about studying abroad. From costs to the getting admission to lack of information, Indian students are still apprehensible about an international education. In this article, we expose a few of those “facts” as actual fiction.

Aarti N Kukreja,
Head, Study Abroad Consulting, IMS
The Indian education trend has seen a lot of mobility since the early 2000s. Back then, international education was a realistic option primarily for the uppermost segment of our consumer class, which comprises around 3 per cent of our population. However, in the mid-2000s, the upper-middle class too received the opportunity to consider an international education, mostly at a post-graduation level, due to the proliferation of personal and educational loans made available to them.
The international education industry was worth around `27,000 crore as of 2012, and with increasing costs of living abroad and tuition fees, this figure has gone up despite a small dip in the numbers thereafter. Table 1 shows the growth from 2006 to 2012 from 1,58,215 to 1,90,055 (without UK’s exact figures.) These figures include Indian candidates who do summer school or opt for short courses abroad.

Table - 1
Indian Higher Education Enrollments in top 7 Receiving Countries, 2005 - 2012
Year	USA	UK	Australia+	Canada	NZ	China	Germany	Total
2012	96,754	NA	12,629	28,929	11,349	10,237	5,745	1,90,055**
2011	100,270	29,900	15,395	23,601	12,301	9,370	4,825	228,774
2010	103,895	39,090	21,932	17,549	11,616	9,014	3,821	253,743
2009	104,897	38,500	28,020	9,561	9,252	8,468	3,236	247,631
2008	103,260	34,065	28,411	8,325	6,348	8,145	3,217	216,516
2007	94,563	25,905	27,078	7,304	3,855	7,190	3,431	205,852
2006	83,833	19,228*	25,497	6,927	2,599	3,245	3,583	158,215
2005	76,503	16,872*	22,529	6,688	NA	NA	3,807	NA
Sources: IIE Open Doors, UK Higher Education Statistics Agency, Australia Education International, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, New Zealand Ministry of Education, China Scholarship Council, DAAD/HIS (Germany). *Inferred from percentage of total international student body **Minus UK total for 2012 +Higher Education (University) enrollments only; no VET

Table 1 shows that although the figure remained pretty much stagnant from 2009 to 2011, it suffered a slight dip in 2012 and clawed its way back up again in 2013, only to gradually increase as we enter the 2014 Fall admissions. The reasons for this are said to be multi-fold — visa restrictions (especially from the UK), Indian students appearing to opt for less popular study destinations as their country of choice, such as China, Germany and others, many students choose to get an international education right here in India in some of our top league universities. GMAT & GRE tests takers in India each year number over 1,15,000 in total (data for 2013), which inevitably shows that Indians prefer a postgraduate degree abroad in management or technical and functional specialisations. However, an estimated 20,000 Indians pursued an undergraduate degree abroad as well in 2013. This number is expected to grow by 5,000 or so each year.
Now, let’s be honest. From an average Indian family’s perspective, an international education entails a deep financial plunge into the pocket. It is probably the first real investment in that family and student’s life. This, along with the distance factor, brings in various other critical questions — choice of university without actually visiting it, capability of the student to get admission, adjustment to the new culture and environment, along with emotional sentiments of being away from home for a long while for the very first time. But for most, the biggest question is: What will happen after the degree?
Let’s tackle some of the most crucial queries faced by Indian candidates while considering their study abroad options, and bust a few of those persistent myths of international education.
Cost and ROI
As mentioned earlier, the biggest concern of studying abroad for a student is the cost, and this isn’t an independent factor. The cost of a programme depends on the brand of the institute (also known as rank), the reputation of the country the institute is in, the average salary received after graduating and the time taken to receive a suitable job. With these compelling factors in mind, let’s take a look at the most popular programme studied abroad by Indians: the MBA. Table 2 shows the programmes at top schools in various regions of the world with their tuition fees, average salary after graduation and percentage of students employed post their graduation within three months.

Table-2  - QS MBA - Elite Global Schools
Rank	School	Average Salary US$	Total Tuition fees US$	% Employed 3 Months After Graduation
North America
1	Harvard Business School	120000	112350	74
2	Stanford Graduate School of Business	129692	119100	92
3	University of Pennsylvania: Wharton	120000	119472	83
4	University of Chicago: Booth	115079	117520	89
5	Northwestern University: Kellogg	120000	118170	86
6	Columbia Business School	103453	121440	94
7	UCLA Anderson School of Management	100000	75180	80
8	Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto	89848	75000	82
9	MIT: Sloan	118406	61440	94
10	Duke University: Fuqua	112626	118000	80
11	University of California at Berkeley: Haas	97000	77096	80
12	University of Michigan, Ross School of Business	111047	116900	85
13	York University, Schulich School of Business	86587	55900	94
14	Richard Ivey School of Business, The University of Western Ontario	93078	78280	90
15	Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University	90000	80000	98
16	HEC Montreal	72776	14200	71
17	Yale School of Management	104147	114400	85
18	Queen's School of Business	62580	82000	80
Europe
1	Insead - France	122900	59500	84
2	London Business School	113779	97000	96
3	IE Business School	102500	59900	92
4	Oxford University, Said Business School	99000	54000	90
5	IMD	142412	63000	89
6	SDA Bocconi School of Management	95000	59000	83
7	IESE Business School	101990	93000	97
8	ESADE Business School	90400	74100	97
9	Copenhagen Business School	100031	57000	77
10	HEC Paris	109880	62400	88
11	The St.Gallen MBA, University of St  Gallen	110000	67000	90
12	Trinity MBA,University of Dublin, Trinity College	100000	38350	70
13	University of Cambridge: Judge	108736	57000	97
Asia Pacific
1	Insead - Singapore	122900	59500	84
2	IIM, Ahmedabad	66888	36000	100

As shown in Table 2, 89.45 per cent of graduates from the top 18 North American, top 13 European and top 2 Asia-Pacific business schools obtain recruitment within three months of graduation. The Return on Investment on most business schools is less than a year, according to Table 2, and the few that are over a year barely make up for it in a mere two months later. It is interesting to note that here, IIM Ahmedabad has the least average salary received in a graduating class overall, but the ROI is just a little over 6 months. IMD Switzerland, on the other hand, has the highest ROI across all business schools, since Switzerland as a country only charges tax for tuition fees to international students as well.

Scholarships
Apart from the cost, we should also consider the opportunity of scholarships with international universities. Although the scholarship scale has been tightened in the last few years, millions of scholarships go unused each year due to lack of information about them, along with the believability factor of obtaining one.
Scholarships can be of two types:
i.     Internal, provided directly by a university on merit or need basis, and
ii.    External, provided by various educational organisations for studying in particular countries or subjects, also based on needs and merit.
Universities first open their deadlines for scholarships and the regular admission deadlines only afterward. This is to motivate candidates to apply early on for the scholarships, especially the merit or needs-based candidates, so university endowments can be correctly allocated. There are usually a few categories of scholarships; many universities have leadership, team player, women in empowerment and specialisations as core scholarship essay topics, along with the merits of the application. International universities also consider the actual application as a huge factor while assessing the scholarship application. The CV, essays, statements of purpose, letters of recommendation and interview preparation all play a crucial part in obtaining any scholarship through the university directly, irrespective of the scholarship amount. The competition for scholarship is, however, unknown and usually extremely fierce.
So far, the most useful Indian website for external scholarships is www.mhrd.gov.in, which has specific links to all international scholarships (country-wise) for Indians. There are also global external scholarship bodies such as UK Commonwealth and Fullbright that promote international student scholarships, and among which there are specific scholarships for Indians as well. A list of these bodies can be found at most universities’ scholarship sections under the “not restricted by region” section.
Capability – Getting admission
Just like the myths about getting into universities in India, Indian students harbour apprehensions about their “capability” of successfully getting admissions to international universities — also a myth! However, international universities are less score-centric compared to India. They usually look for holistic profiles — they would like unique individuals with various professional and personal backgrounds to increase the diversity of their classroom. International schools are always looking to find the so-called “X-Factor” in profiles that cross their desks. Beyond academic excellence, aptitude scores and work experience (if applicable), they are interested in the core interests of the candidate outside the classroom and workspace. The highest rates of rejections in applications are from Harvard and Stanford, although this is because they receive the most number of applications across all universities. They have been known to reject candidates who are simply too academic and others who are overachievers and might not fit into the classroom on numerous occasions, but they do welcome candidates who might be less inclined towards academics, for instance, but have an instinctive understanding of entrepreneurship.
Lack of information
Despite the viral effect of virtuality, there are still two impediments, of sorts, amongst Indians: spoon-feeding and hearsay. India hits the pit of the worm-hole with hearsay, and this is a critical issue while seeking guidance for international education. Every Indian “knows someone who knows someone” who has had a certain type of experience while studying abroad, and usually they are as inaccurate as Indians still using elephant transport, locally. Lack of information as mentioned above is easily clouded by such lack of accurate information, and hence it is most important to go through proper channels to acquire information.

Information for international education is very readily available online and backed with statistics, but if that is not enough, India is filled with counsellors, to handhold a candidate through the process of an international admission. Some of the top queries students have regarding their admissions are:
i.     Eligibility of programme
ii.    Country to pursue programme in
iii.   Work-permit after graduation
iv.   Jobs available after graduation
As a thumb-rule, fresh graduates with up to two years of work experience are eligible for:
i.     Any MS programme with any specialisation of their choice
ii.    Masters of International Management Programme
Furthermore, fresh engineering graduates with up to two years of work experience are eligible for:
i.     Masters of Engineering Management
ii.    Masters of Financial Engineering
Any candidate with over three years of full-time work experience is usually eligible for an MBA anywhere internationally. Some schools even admit candidates with two years work experience. Lastly, anyone who would like to pursue a PhD has to go through the MS route in most cases with the exceptions of years of research and development experience.
In terms of choice of country and their work permit laws, Table 3 clearly depicts the duration of courses along with the time given to obtain recruitment.

Table 3: Work-permit laws post study
Country	Course duration	Work permit rule
USA	2 years	3 months to look for a job with a 9-month extension if employment obtained.  Sponsorship from employer for H1B Visa thereafter
UK	1 year	No work permit post study unless there is employer sponsorship or if the student can prove he / she is a highly-skilled worker
Australia / Canada	2 years	3 years automatic work permit and Resident Visa thereafter
Netherlands / Spain / France / Sweden / Italy / Ireland	1 year	1 year search for a job permit
Germany	1 year	18 months search for a job permit
Singapore / UAE / Malaysia / Hong Kong	1 or 2 years	Renewable tourist visas can be obtained to stay back to look for jobs

Table 3 gives rise to the question of a 1-year course against a 2-year one in any specialisation. The school of thought for 2-year programmes has always contended that these programmes are more intricate and inward learning with a probable opportunity to do an internship. On the other hand, the 1-year programme is generally considered to be an intense and advanced learning, whereby the student is expected to know the basics beforehand and brush up on them during the course of the programme.
The crux of investing in an international degree usually is seeking better employment opportunities abroad after the degree, aside from the aforementioned salary packages. The most critical learning in an international education is global employability — executing business decisions across international markets and dealing with cross-cultural environments.

Table 4: Specialisations and compensation
Specialisation	Mid-career median pay (in USD)	Projected employment increase for common jobs associated with this degree (in %)
Electrical Engineering	124,000	18
Finance	119,000	18.60
Physics	117,000	22
Computer Science	114,000	21.30
Civil Engineering	102,000	19
Information Systems	101,000	30
Physician Assistant Studies	98,800	22
Nursing	88,600	26
Public Health	84,100	30.50
Occupational Therapy	81,000	33

Given in Table 4 are the best-paying Masters’ degree jobs with their mid-career median pay and projected employment increase for common jobs associated with the respective degrees. It is imperative to understand that the average course cost for a Masters degree in the below specialisations is US$50,000, proving that the ROI is less than 1 year in the first year of employment.
Similarly, it can be seen from the chart above that candidates from various backgrounds who pursue an MBA abroad venture into the below industries pre-MBA to post-MBA.
It can be seen that fresh MBAs mostly venture out into Consulting and/or professional services. Naturally, banking and the financial sector are the second largest, followed by HR, manufacturing, IT and FMCG. Therefore, there is a realistic scope to pursue a career in the industry of your choice, along with a reasonable ROI and salary/ bonus package after pursuing an international education.
Moreover, as far as research and development is concerned, the pragmatic opportunities available to an Indian student after his graduation in India are far and few between, primarily due to the lack of foreign direct investment in India and, consequently, the absence of R&D centres across India. Table 5 shows the R&D spend by the top countries around the world and India’s own R&D. This is in direct correlation to the nature of jobs and salaries available to students in India  compared to ones abroad as discussed above. Finally, to sum up, pursuing an international education is certainly a strain on the finances of an average Indian family. One might feel the pinch of this investment and get bogged down with the myths of the apparently  unobtainable admission to an international B-school, but the facts are far too real. At the end of the day, what it all boils down to is the upward impetus it gives to an individual’s career graph.

Table 5:  A snapshot of the global R&D spend is provided below
Global countries spending billions on R&D	2009 GERD PPP* billions, US$	Share of total global R&D spending
America	437.1	38.20%
US	383.5	33.60%
Asia	386.9	33.80%
Japan	144.6	12.60%
China	142.5	12.50%
India	24.1	2.10%
Europe	280.2	24.50%
Rest of the world	39	3.40%
	1143.2	100%
*PPP - Purchasing Power Parity GERD - Gross Domestic Expenditure on R&D Source - Battelle, R&D Magazine