Findings from survey of young people living in India looking to study abroad

Ipsos recently completed a survey of 500 young people living in India who are looking to study abroad, on behalf of the think tank IPPR. The survey asked respondents about their impression of the UK and other countries as destinations for overseas study.

The survey showed respondents regard the US, Australia and the UK as the best places to study from a list of twenty countries. Eighty per cent said they had either a mainly or very favourable view of the UK as a place to study, only bettered by the United States (83%). One in five respondents (19%) felt the UK had the best education system in the world, behind the United States (35%) and Australia (27%).

Seven in ten respondents said they were considering studying in the UK (70%), a similar proportion to the US (71%) and Australia (72%), while three in ten said they had already applied for a visa to study in the UK (30%), again a similar number to the US (29%) and Australia (28%). Of those who had applied, 53% said the process of applying for a visa to the UK was very or fairly easy; higher than the US (45%) but a lot lower than Australia (72%).

Respondents felt studying at universities with good reputations in their subject areas and high quality learning facilities were the two most important considerations when making a choice about where to study (66% and 62% respectively felt these were very important¹). For those considering study in the UK, Britain is attractive for both reasons: the quality of the UK’s education system (40%) and the high quality learning facilities of UK universities (38%) were mentioned as the things that appeal most about living and studying in the UK.

However, the cost of studying (62%), living (60%) and getting a visa (56%) are also key considerations for respondents when thinking about where to study overseas, which may count against the UK: among those who had not considered study in the UK, the reasons most cited were the expense of tuition fees in the UK (53%) and the cost of living (47%).

Being able to work in the country after studying also featured as an important consideration for respondents (54%). As such, there may be some cause for concern in the finding that nine out of ten respondents said the UK government’s restriction on the right of overseas students to work in the UK after completing their studies will put most (51%) or some (40%) Indian students off studying in the UK.

• Download the survey topline (PDF)

Technical note

The survey was completed online with Ipsos panel members and members of other online panel providers. To take part in the survey, respondents had to be of Indian nationality, living in India, aged between 16 and 30 and considering study abroad. Five-hundred respondents completed the survey between 5 and 12 September 2013.

Notes

¹ ‘Very important’ has been defined as the proportion answering 9 or 10 on a scale of 0-10 where 0 is not at all important and 10 is extremely important.