Most Foreign Students in India from Nepal & Afghanistan, Karnataka Most Favoured State
MHRD has recently released the statistics of the foreign students' enrolment in India. Karnataka takes the lead in inviting more foreign students. Most of the applicants are from Nepal. B. Tech and BBA are the most popular courses.
In a recent report released by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), it has been revealed that India gets its most number of foreign students from Nepal, the second place is held by Afghanistan. The state which welcomes the most number of foreign students is Karnataka.
B. Tech, followed by BBA is shown as the most popular courses foreign students prefer for their study in India. 47,427 foreign students enrolled for higher studies in India.
State Wise Foreign Students’ Number in India 2019
Karnataka currently has 10,023 foreign students followed by Maharashtra where 5,003 foreign students study. Following is the state-wise foreign students' number in India:
State | Number of Foreign Students |
Karnataka | 10,023 |
Maharashtra | 5,003 |
Punjab | 4,533 |
Uttar Pradesh | 4,514 |
Tamil Nadu | 4,101 |
Haryana | 2,872 |
Delhi | 2,141 |
Gujarat | 2,068 |
Telangana | 2,020 |
Percentage of Foreign Students’ Enrollment in India (Country-Wise) 2019
The most number of foreign students in India generally come from the Himalayan Country of Nepal. India currently has foreign students from 164 countries across the globe. Following are the percentage of students from the most significant countries which contribute to India’s foreign student's population:
Belonging Country | Percentage of Foreign Students |
Nepal | 26.88% |
Afghanistan | 9.8% |
Bangladesh | 4.38% |
Sudan | 4.02% |
Bhutan | 3.82% |
Nigeria | 3.4% |
The United States of America | 3.2% |
Yemen | 3.2% |
Sri Lanka | 2.64% |
Iran | 2.38% |
These 10 countries mentioned above contribute to 63.7% of the total foreign students' population in India. Most numbers of foreign students in India for PhD level research are from Ethiopia (295) which is followed by Yemen (149).
Also Read:Not even relaxed rules are helping IITs to Attract Foreign Students
Course Wise Foreign Student Enrolment in India 2019
Most of the foreign students come to India for Bachelors level studies. The percentage of foreign students enrolment at bachelors level is 73.4% of the total foreign students' population. 16.15% enrol for Post-Graduate studies.
B. Tech courses in India attract the most number of foreign students. Currently, a total of 8,861 students from foreign lands are enrolled in B.Tech.
Most Popular Courses for Foreign Students | Number of Foreign Students |
B.Tech | 8,861 |
BBA | 3,354 |
3,320 | |
2,226 |
Other most popular courses are, BCA, MBBS, B.Pharma and BDS among the UG courses.
Also Read: What are the Challenges India is Facing for Attracting Foreign Students for Higher Education
A total of 38,179 colleges, 962 universities and 9190 standalone institutes participated in the MHRD survey for the year 2018-19.