INDIA WITH RUPEES DEPRECIATED BY 14% STUDYING IN USA UK AND CANADA HAS BECOME COSTLY FOR STUDENTS FROM INDIA AND ONLY OPTION FOR CHEAP EDUCATION IS LEFT IS TO STUDY IN GERMANY 23th August 2013 The excitement of pursuing higher education abroad has waned for Ahmedabad-based Shreya Mathur. Reason: rupee depreciation. She had secured admission in Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in human resources at Seneca College in Toronto, Canada. But the $6,800-odd per semester fees will now cost her an additional Rs 2-3 lakh in the subsequent semesters due to currency fluctuations. Between August 20, 2012 and August 20 this year, the rupee depreciated about 14 per cent. On August 20, 2012, the currency was at 55. 5 against the US dollar, on Wednesday the rupee the 64 mark at close. This means, if you were to enrol for an MBA at Harvard Business School in the US, you would have shelled out over Rs 1 crore for the programme in August 2012. On the other hand, if you were to enrol this year, the cost would be Rs 1.17 crore, an increase of 17 per cent or Rs 8.5 lakh per annum for the two-year programme. Mathur had paid her first semester fees in July when the rate was Rs 58 against US dollar. At that time, it cost her over Rs 4 lakh excluding the cost of books. However, come October and she will have to shell out almost Rs 1 lakh more for her tuition fees and books, apart from the hostel fees of $1,100 a month. "Had I secured admission last year, I would have spent Rs 5-8 lakh less for the entire programme. Many of my peers who were planning an overseas education have dropped the idea since they now cannot afford due to rupee depreciation. As for me, I could afford only because the new rule allows us to pay the fees in part for a semester," says Mathur. Coaching institutes that train students to take global examinations such as Graduate Record Examination (GRE), Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT), International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and Test of English as Foreign Language (TOEFL) and help them secure admissions in colleges and universities, say the impact is more among students from middle-class families. "Fairly a large portion of the student traffic to other countries from India come from the middle-class. Hence, there will be a huge impact on the traffic, especially from the middle-class. Moreover, not only is the rupee declining but also certain policy changes will add to the impact. For instance, the annual cap of $200,000 for overseas remittances by Indian tax payers has been brought down by the government to mere $75,000 per annum," says Naveen Chopra, chairman of The Chopras, a Delhi-based global education firm. According to Chopra, the impact on student traffic due to the rupee depreciation against dollar, pound and euro could be as high as 40 per cent. Industry estimates peg student traffic from India to the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Germany, among others every year at 150,000-200,000 "Major fall in the rupee has taken place in the last few days. Temporarily, there is a slowdown as students are apprehensive and in a wait and watch mode now," says Vinayak Kamath, technical director, GeeBee Education, Mumbai. GeeBee is an international student recruitment organisation, adding that student traffic to the UK would be substantially impacted as the rupee has depreciated the most against pound compared to the dollar. The other impact could be country shift. "Those who still want to go for overseas studies are opting for country shift. This means, instead of opting for costly colleges, universities or countries, students are trying to save money by choosing cheaper destinations," says Chopra, adding that many are opting for Germany, although the country puts a lot of effort on getting "bright students". This makes sense in the wake of a study released by HSBC last week according to which, at an average cost of over $38,000 per annum for international students, Australia tends to be the most expensive country for overseas study from India. The US is the second most expensive country for overseas students with the combined average cost of university fees and living expenses there putting the average annual cost at over $35,000. The UK is the third most expensive destination with annual fees of $19,291 and living costs of $10,177. International student costs in the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and Hong Kong are all above $20,000 a year, as a result of higher costs of living in these three premier emerging market destinations. However, overseas students in Ivy League universities could pay over two thirds (67 per cent) on top of this amount, with average total costs reaching $58,760 a year. According to the HSBC study, which looked at available data on higher education in 13 countries around the world, international students could find lower cost education in Germany with low tuition costs as well as cost of living. International students studying in Germany pay an average $635 for study costs and another $5,650 in living costs, bringing the annual total to $6,285, a sixth of the cost of studying Australia.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Aug 2013 16:31:32 +0000
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