Indian students flock to US universities in record numbers, for brighter prospects, overseas jobs: ‘we value education’

“I don’t feel like I would have gotten the same level of education that I get here,” said Karkale, 23.

Historic numbers of students from India are studying at foreign universities as a fast-growing, aspirational generation of young people looks for opportunities they cannot find at home. India estimates 1.5 million students are studying at universities elsewhere – an eightfold increase since 2012 – with no country attracting more than the US.

India’s economy is growing, but joblessness remains persistent even for college graduates. Jobs are being created in fields such as construction and agriculture, but they do not meet the demands of a newly educated workforce, said Rosa Abraham, an economist at the Azim Premji University.

“I think many young people today feel like the economy isn’t meeting their potential, their aspirations, and so they want to try their chances abroad if they can,” she said.

India’s own higher education system is also short on capacity. As its population surges, competition for admission to India’s top universities has become frenzied. Acceptance rates at some elite Indian universities have fallen as low as 0.2 per cent, compared to 3 per cent at Harvard University and 4 per cent at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lokesh Sangabattula, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in materials science at MIT, is among many hoping to land jobs inside the US There’s little demand for materials scientists in India, he said, and at best he figures he could become a professor. It’s a similar story for engineers, which India generates in huge numbers without the industry to employ them.

“We produce engineers whose degrees don’t have value, so people leave the country,” he said.

The vast majority are coming for graduate