Gaurav Rane* has been combing through his old social media posts over the past few weeks, weeding out anything that could be interpreted as politically sensitive content.
The 23-year-old Meerut-based student is preparing to apply for a medical course in the United States this autumn. His father, also a doctor, studied at Johns Hopkins, and Rane hopes to follow a similar path. While academic performance and finances are not a concern, he is uneasy about recent changes in the US visa policy, especially the scrutiny of online activity.
“Donald Trump’s executive orders are scary. Now he has said that we should make our social media public and that the visa authorities will see it before considering our visa. So I am tense. If my visa gets rejected…then I do not have any other countries (to apply to) as a backup,” he says.
Rane is one of the 7.5 lakh-odd students planning to go abroad to study from tier-two and tier-three Indian cities. Smaller cities such as Meerut and Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh and others are fuelling an unprecedented surge in foreign university education, for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
While the number of Indian students going abroad to study dropped during the Covid-19 pandemic, a growing number of young people from tier-two and tier-three towns have since been making a beeline for international campuses.
As per the Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the total percentage of students going abroad since 2020 has increased by over 52 per cent in 2024. Universities abroad have also appeared to have picked up on this by increasing their marketing budgets in India by about 40 per cent more than 2023.
In 2022 alone, there was a 68 per cent increase from 2021. An upGrad survey from 2023 found that 80 per cent of aspiring study-abroad applicants were from non-metro towns and 44 per cent of upGrad’s overseas students hailed from smaller cities.
“The tier-two cities, of course, have seen a rise because in states like Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the middle-class population is growing. There is also a lot of income coming from the sale of land. So those kinds of funding opportunities have come about,” says Aparna Mitra, founder of Intra Overseas Education, a consultancy service with branches across India.
“Often a lot of students who are going to big universities use the opportunity to get into a country, say Australia, using the student route, but eventually drop their school semesters and move to cheaper universities or colleges.”
Mitra says she has been opening branches in smaller cities such as Lucknow and Agra of late because “in the past five years, there has been a 30 to 40 per cent increase” in students from non-tier-one cities who are keen on studying abroad.
India’s booming middle class, now over 600 million strong, and rising incomes have led to increased spending on foreign education, from about $24 billion in 2011-12 to $68 billion in 2018-19. According to Union Ministry of Education reports, the foreign education market tripled to $80 billion in 2024. However, not every student goes with the intention to study, says Gaurav Arora, managing partner of the Council for International Education.
Three Types of Students
“Often a lot of students who are going to big universities use the opportunity to get into a country, say Australia, using the student route, but eventually drop their school semesters and move to cheaper universities or colleges,” says Arora. This has caused countries like Australia to change their policies, he adds, saying, “Every country today is looking for genuine students.”
According to Arora, a large portion of these aspirants hail from Punjab and Haryana, where young people are looking “to get out now, so they go out for education.” He adds that “a lot of people from Punjab and (adjoining) areas want to get out because they just want to get out…they don’t want to be the fourth generation or fifth generation doing the same thing as the last.”
Indian international students are now the world’s second-largest cohort of international students, with only China surpassing the numbers. The flow from India to abroad has accelerated. It was 4.4 lakh in 2016, 7.7 lakh in 2019, and went up to 13.18 lakh Indians studying abroad in 2023. About half of this number come from tier-two and tier-three towns, says Mitra.
“The flow of international students from tier-one cities is steady and unchanging. When there is an uptick in numbers, it is always from the smaller towns and cities,” she says.
Apart from the students who are simply looking to escape their circumstances, there are those who are looking to pursue specialist programmes, while another set goes abroad because they cannot get admission into elite Indian institutes. The latter comprises mostly medical students like Rane and engineering students who did not make the cut-off for the Indian Institutes of Technology. According to official reports, roughly 25,000 Indians a year go overseas for medical degrees because domestic seats are scarce.
It is similar in undergraduate engineering, says Mitra. “Undergraduate engineers, if they don’t make it to the IITs, their second most desirable option is Germany. While the US is also there by default, it is very, very expensive. Studying in an undergraduate programme in the US costs close to two crores (rupees), while in Germany, it can be under Rs 21 lakh for one semester and the other semesters are free if the student knows German,” she says.
Canada, which was the most popular of the Big Four destinations in 2023 with 4,27,085 indian student applicants, now has “nearly nil.”
Students from tier-two and tier-three cities and towns are more “price conscious,” says Mitra, adding that they often choose less costly options. “Russia used to be popular. Right now, the countries that are trending are Kazakhstan, Georgia, Romania, Hungary and Poland.”
MEA reports show that 24,500 students went to Germany in 2023 and another 25,300 went to Russia. The report also notes that Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Georgia host thousands of Indian students.
Another thing students worry about is the host country’s policies. Canada, which was the most popular of the Big Four destinations in 2023 with 4,27,085 student applicants, is now “nearly nil,” says Arora. This is because of the government’s policies, he adds.
With two of the Big Four destination countries changing their policies and overhauling their visa criteria, the destinations have changed too. Canada, which had once aggressively courted Indian students, has introduced tighter measures, such as doubling the proof-of-funds requirement and increasing scrutiny at the border. This has led to a sharp drop in permits: so far in 2025, about 31 per cent fewer study visas have been issued to Indians compared to 2024, MEA reports show.
While Canada’s reputation as a destination for Indian international students has declined, the US remains an “evergreen” market, says Mitra, adding that Europe is now the most popular destination, with each country hosting a few lakh Indian students. Niche countries such as Ireland, New Zealand or Japan are also steadily gaining ground with students who see them as offering “work-friendly immigration and affordable tuition,” says Sameera Khan*, who is planning to study nursing in Ireland as it is “cheaper.”
ApplyBoard’s data confirms the trend: Canada’s student visa approvals fell nearly 48 per cent in 2024 after the government imposed yearly caps. Australia and the UK also announced study permit caps and stricter finance rules, causing 2024 visas to decline by 23 per cent, and UK and US visas to drop by 12 to 14 per cent, according to ApplyBoard.
Consultants: The Local Launchpad
A decade ago, there were only a handful of small offices in Meerut that handled test preparation or niche counselling. Now, dozens of firms offer end-to-end services, with the larger pan-India firms opening branch offices in small towns and tier-two and tier-three cities.
While tier-one city students usually take care of their applications on their own and have infrastructure in place within their schools, such as counsellors and university fairs, tier-two and tier-three city students largely go through consultants, says Mitra. Consultants nationwide reported 50 to 100 per cent growth in applications from tier-two towns since 2020, says an upGrad survey.
The consultants, who charge between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 4.5 lakh per student, assist them in selecting courses and universities that fit their profile, prepare them for entrance exams and language tests (IELTS, TOEFL, GRE), and compile admission applications (essays, statements of purpose, recommendation letters). They also handle visa paperwork, from advising on proof-of-funds to arranging mock consular interviews and guide families through loan applications or scholarship opportunities. Big companies like IEC even organise pre-departure orientation sessions covering cultural adaptation, housing, part-time jobs and linking students with alumni.
Most consultants have partnered with complementary businesses such as visa and travel agents and even foreign exchange centres.
In tier-two and tier-three cities, Arora says marketing takes place through “newspapers, which still work in such small cities.” He adds that consultants also compete for students through education fairs and tie-ups with colleges and schools. “Social media has to be there and by default word-of-mouth has to be there too,” he says, adding that consultants also target corporates if they are “targetting postgrad” students, such as for MBAs. Webinars, both online and offline, are also popular for generating leads, he says.
Locally in Meerut, agency owners confirm that student sign-ups have sharply increased. Shipra Aggarwal, who runs KC Consultants, says that whereas once only a few families would consider UK, Germany, Ireland, or Australia, now dozens of families come seeking her guidance. Mitra added that in tier-two and three cities the students are affluent—perhaps even more so than in tier-one cities— but they lack “exposure,” which has now been provided through the internet and social media.
While the business model for consultants is a difficult one, they charge certain packages for prestigious universities and also have tie-ups with “partner” universities who pay them a commission per student. The payoff is quite large. A Delhi-based consultant with Pan-India offices says that she clears about “Rs 50 lakh to one crore rupees a year” in her business. The partner universities pay commissions of “approximately 10 per cent of the students’ first year’s tuition fee” per student, she says.
Barriers For Tier-two and Tier-three City Students
Students from smaller towns face several hurdles on this journey, but the main one is financing. Foreign tuition and the cost of living in these countries have risen sharply in the past five years to roughly Rs 15 lakh to Rs 2.5 crore per year, depending on the course.
However, the most recent Indian budget removed the five per cent tax collected at source (TCS) on education loan remittances, and banks like SBI also offer collateral-free student loans, students says. What really hits them, Khan says, is the funds requirement for getting a student visa. Canada’s requirement to prove CA$20,635 in funds (nearly Rs 13 lakh) is more than double the older requirement of $10,000.
“This is the biggest struggle for me. I’m from a middle-class family and have to take a loan to fund my education, so showing Rs 13 lakh almost takes me out of the running,” she says.
Consultants have evolved to help students with these new rules, including assistance with financing through loans.
The other issue for tier-two and tier-three students, Arora says, is language and cultural adjustment. Many tier-two students study in Hindi-medium schools and struggle with the English fluency needed for admission essays or campus life.
“If the students are coming from an agricultural background, especially from states like Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, then by default we know that both written and spoken English are a concern,” Arora says.
A 21-year-old from a Meerut engineering college says her consultant helped perfect her Statement of Purpose and that she is now preparing to go to a data science programme in Toronto.
Lack of Regulation of Business
Currently, there are no requirements for registering a visa consultancy, nor is there any oversight body in the government to which education counselling businesses are accountable. With the industry set to grow to over $80 billion this year, there is no dearth of scamsters who prey on young people’s dreams of studying abroad.
With no oversight mechanisms in place, the onus falls on students and foreign universities to carry out their own vetting. Mitra says that foreign universities have their own screening process, through which they check on the consultants and train them on university requirements every six months.
(Some names have been changed on request)
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Avantika Mehta is a senior associate editor based in New Delhi
