Currency crash and visa crackdowns force Indian students to rethink studying abroad

After many years of careful planning, Pragati Priya, a 29-year-old content creator from the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, finally decided to enrol in a master's programme abroad this year.

Priya will head to university in Rome in September to study global economic affairs - a move she hopes will open the door to better professional opportunities in Europe.

She's excited about what the future holds, but also questions whether she's made the right decision. The amount she needs to borrow for her programme has risen sharply because of the steep decline in the value of the Indian rupee against a basket of currencies, including the euro, over the past few months.

"It has kept me up at night. I don't want to burden myself with a student loan that [I] will never finish [repaying]," Priya told the BBC over phone.

Her anxiety mirrors the dilemma facing hundreds of thousands of middle-class Indian students who leave home each year to study at universities across Europe, North America and Australia.

More than 1.2 million Indian students were enrolled in higher education abroad in 2025, with India having overtaken China some years ago as the leading source of international students.

But a weakening currency, bleak job prospects in the US and Europe, stricter visa requirements and immigration crackdowns have forced many to reconsider whether it is worth taking on hefty debts to move abroad.

"I considered dropping my plans, but my parents and sister promised to support me. That's the only reason I'm able to take this risk," Priya said.

For many others, that is not a luxury they can afford - a reality reflected in declining enrolment numbers for the upcoming September intake at universities.

"The market is clearly showing signs of slowing down. We've already seen enrolments to the UK and US fall by 20% over the last two years, and I expect another 10-15% decline from those levels going forward," Sushil Sukhwani, founder of Edwise International, which sends thousands of Indian students to universities abroad each year, told the BBC.

Tougher visa requirements have already taken a toll. In the UK, 76% of universities reported a decline in Indian student enrolments for the January intake, while in the US, enrolments fell by nearly 7% between February 2025 and February 2026.

The sharp fall in the rupee has compounded the challenges facing both prospective students and those already studying overseas.

"Many students who are already abroad have paid part of their tuition fees, but are now having to refinance loans and arrange additional funding to cover future instalments, with the rupee down more than 10% against the US dollar in the last year," Sukhwani said.

According to his calculations, the Indian rupee has depreciated by between 35% and 47% against the currencies of major study destinations since 2019.

While incomes have risen for some graduates who have got jobs and stayed overseas, climbing onto the career ladder is becoming increasingly difficult for many international students.

"They arrive hoping to secure skilled jobs in the fields they trained for and end up working in the gig economy. Earlier, that work helped fund their education. Now many are graduating and doing it full-time," Sudhanshu Kaushik, founder of the North America Association of Indian Students in Washington, told the BBC.

This, he said, is affecting the risk appetite of upper-middle-class Indian families, particularly as the weaker rupee has made an overseas education more expensive than ever.

Yet overall demand for foreign education remains strong.

According to the Global Student Flows Report 2026, Indian student enrolments in the US, UK, Canada and Australia - often referred to as the "big four" destinations - are forecast to decline by an average of 0.5% annually through 2030.

At the same time, interest in alternative destinations is growing.

"Countries such as Germany, Ireland, Italy and several other European destinations are attracting increasing interest from Indian students because of lower tuition costs, favourable post-study work pathways, strong employment prospects and a more attractive overall value proposition," said Mayank Maheshwari, co-founder and COO of University Living, a student accommodation platform.

Sukhwani says his company has also shifted its focus towards these "new-age destinations" in response to growing student interest.

Affordability was a key factor in Priya's decision to choose Italy over the UK or the US.

Her tuition fees are roughly half of what she would have paid in the UK, while the US was "out of the question", she said, because completing her degree there would have taken two years rather than one in Rome.

Experts say these trends are a worrying sign for countries such as the UK and the US, which have spent decades building globally competitive higher education sectors.

The concern is particularly acute because India remains one of the largest sources of international students for both countries, even as enrolments from China have slowed.

"The depreciating currency, the job market, the rise of AI, the visa issues and the current [Donald Trump] administration's policies have all combined to create a perfect storm. No one wins," said Kaushik.

"The students suffer, the universities suffer, college towns suffer and the broader economy suffers."

He argues that the US especially risks undermining one of its most successful sources of influence abroad.

"We are retreating from the gains we made in promoting higher education as one of our most influential and profitable forms of soft power," he said.

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