Fall of rupee shattered dreams of Indian students to study abroad

Indian students who are currently reconsidering the plan to go abroad for higher studies, may become victims of the weakening rupee, as if the dollar remains around Rs 65/-.

The students who are already admitted to the universities abroad, are facing a tough time to increase the additional fees for further studies.

The decline of the value of the Indian rupee has been a blow to students, who are planning to leave in the coming months.

While many of them have written to universities asking them to defer their admissions, others are making last-ditch attempts to manage the additional expense.

According to reports, every year lakhs of students from India will go abroad for studies. The top three destinations are the United States, U.K. and Australia.

In 2012, around 7,64,495 students in US were from India. A total of 9,709 students visas has been approved for study abroad for the year 2013.

When students began applying for VISA in May, 1$=Rs 54.4, now 1$=Rs 65.70.

Many students, who went abroad last year, are now searching for additional funds.

Ramkumar Balasubramanian, a computer engineering student at Arizona State University, said he has begun cutting his daily expenses. Ramkumar estimates that his expenditure has risen by at least 15 per cent.

"Holiday plans have been cancelled and most of us Indian students are working as much as labour permit hours allow us to. Even going home during the Christmas break seems unlikely. I am very worried about paying next year's fees," he said.

Students planning for next year's admission will also have to pay more for TOEFL, GRE and GMAT application forms, apart from the admission forms of foreign universities.

The weak rupee has resulted in higher cost of financing, and some families have indeed seen their savings fall short and their dreams of a better future shattered. To tide over this fund crunch, students are either looking at alternative sources of funding like scholarships or picking on campus part-time jobs, etc, adds the paper.

In recent years, a number of Indian students are opting for new areas like healthcare, English and linguistics while vocational training has also become popular.

Indian students in Germany mostly specialise in areas of Engineering (Mechanical and Process Engineering), Information Technology (IT), Sciences (Biology and Chemistry) and Economics.