The number of students seeking admission to US universities this year could fall, owing to the poor state of the job market there. Institutes that help students pursue studies abroad peg the hit between 15 and 25 per cent, depending on the university, areas of research and kinds of companies that sponsor these universities to provide research or teaching assistantships.
According to the latest Open Doors 2008 report released by The Institute of International Education in the US, the number of Indian students at US colleges and universities touched an all-time high of 94,563 students in the 2007-2008 academic year — a 12.8 per cent increase.
Since 2001, Indians have been the largest foreign student population on American campuses, comprising 15.2 per cent of the total international students in that country.
“This year, traffic to the US could see a decline, whereas other destinations could pick up. We are advising students to take up studies in New Zealand and Canada, where the economic situation is pretty stable and the job market is still robust,” said Vinayak Kamath, director, Gee Bee Education, a Mumbai-based international student recruitment organisation.
Another deterrent for students to opt for international markets to study is the unfavourable exchange rate. The dollar rose almost 25 per cent — from around Rs 40 a year ago to Rs 50 currently. A student, therefore, would have to shell out Rs 12,00,000-15,00,000 for a year’s tuition against Rs 9,00,000-10,00,000 a year ago.
Industry players also say students looking for value-for-money programmes are postponing their study plans.
Many Indian students who wish to study in the West seek some form of subsidy either through a direct scholarship or in terms of teaching assistantships that enable students to work for the university in return for an education subsidy.
“With endowments to these universities coming down, the total amount available for disbursement towards assistantships will certainly shrink and this will directly affect either the number of subsidies that universities is able to offer, or the extent of the subsidy or both,” said Jaideep Singh Chowdhury, director marketing, Triumphant Institute of Management Education.
“Grants are being reduced and student traffic will also fall owing to the slowdown in those countries. There will also be a lot of competition in these countries domestically now,” added Kamath.
Yale University’s Yale School of Management confirms this trend. The university says the number of international applications have fallen this year and domestic applications are up, though the school says it does not have specific data on the fall in the number of applications.
Yale University’s school of management, however, says its scholarships and teaching assistant opportunities are unaffected. “The number of teaching assistant positions is determined by the number of courses offered and the number of students in each course. If new courses are added, the number of teaching assistant positions would also increase,” said Bruce DelMonico, director of admissions, Yale School of Management.
Cornell University, on the other hand, says it would continue to offer generous financial assistance to both undergraduate and graduate students. The university has received an endowment of $50 million from the Tata Education and Development Trust, which includes $25 million for the Tata Scholarship. Cornell University hosts 395 students from India.
Diane Bonin, director of financial aid at the Tuck School of Business says while it does not offer “assistantships” historically roughly 43 per cent of Tuck students receive a direct scholarship each year, and it does not anticipate this year being any different. However, the market says it could see growth as early as mid-2010.
In fact, Tuck School does not expect the intake of Indian students to fall this year. Dawna Clarke, director of admissions at the Tuck school of Business, Dartmouth, US, expects the percentage of students from India to stay constant at 35 per cent this year, despite the economic situation
