Indian students going abroad fall 31% in three years as visa rules tighten
The number of Indian students heading overseas has fallen for three straight years — from 9.08 lakh in 2023 to 6.26 lakh in 2025 — as destination countries tighten visa rules and refusal rates climb.
The number of Indian students going abroad for higher education has fallen for three consecutive years, dropping from more than 9.08 lakh in 2023 to 7.7 lakh in 2024 and 6.26 lakh in 2025 — a decline of about 31 per cent over three years.
The reversal follows years of near-unbroken growth. Behind it, Business Standard reports, are tighter policies in the most popular destinations, higher refusal rates in some visa categories, long appointment waits in India, and uncertainty around H-1B reform in the United States that has made the study-then-work pathway look riskier.
The financial signal points the same way. Study-abroad remittances from India fell to their lowest level in eight years between April and August 2025, even as total overseas education spend still runs into the trillions of rupees.
India's policy response has been to try to keep more of that demand at home. Under the National Education Policy, the government has cleared foreign universities to open Indian campuses, with several institutions approved, including five given the go-ahead to operate in GIFT City, Gujarat.
For the diaspora, the shift matters at both ends: fewer new arrivals feeding the student pipelines in the UK, Canada and the US, and a slowly growing option to get a foreign degree without leaving India.
Sources: Business Standard — Indian students going abroad fall 31% in 3 years · The Tribune — 'Indian diaspora is seen as an asset'.
