Students of NPS Have Obtained Scholarships for Study Abroad.

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The class 12 student of National Public School (NPS) are finalizing formalities to pursue his undergraduate program in law at Oxford. About 150 Class 12 students from NPS have obtained scholarships of $9 million for various undergrad courses in medicine, humanities and other streams in the USA and UK.

Boston University, University of London and Johns Hopkins University are the preferred destinations for study abroad., according to Inventure Academy where half the Class 12 students are headed abroad.

A brain drain is happening early in India. Education consultants in Bangalore are increasingly seeing 16 and 17 year old walk in to get details on foreign universities earlier sought only by those seeking PG admissions. The reasons are not far to seek. Global exposure and higher cut-offs in Indian colleges are forcing them to look to foreign shores.

KP Gopalakrishna, chairman of NPS, said: "Today students are realizing the value of foreign education (study abroad) rather early. The CBSE syllabus is good enough for them to compete anywhere. It's different from what it was a decade ago. Students want to go for their under-graduate program itself now.''

Flexibility of courses is another attraction. "Universities study abroad allow students to pursue liberal arts in medicine and engineering courses," says Lt Gen (retired) Arjun Ray, CEO of Indus, 90% students are headed to foreign shores, predominantly US varsities. The scene is no different at Indus International School where every year 90% of its students go abroad to pursue UG courses. Of the 90% of students, 80% go to USA. Apart from pursuing UG courses in science and technology, students are going to foreign universities to pursue liberal arts.''

Education in India too does not come cheap, say consultants. Ajeet Kumar, director of Admission Guru, says in India a student has to roughly spend around Rs 90 lakh to pursue medicine but in China, Ukraine or Philippines, it would be only around Rs 60 lakh.

"Why wait till they complete graduation?" asks a parent whose ward has secured admission in University of Pennsylvania. "The fees are no cheaper here. The process is so skewed that one mark makes a difference and the student cannot pursue the course of his choice. If you have the money, earlier the better.''

Dilip Rai, director of Overseas Educational Services, says the top destinations are the US, Canada, and Australia as they offer work permits too. Singapore is another favorite. Germany attracts engineering aspirants as its universities offer free education for international students. According to an IIM-B study abroad, Indian students also prefer English-speaking countries.

Merit Higher Education Consultancy director Santosh Neelangatil says for the past few year there are many queries regarding admissions for graduate programs in Singapore too. Germany which is known as the hub for mechanical engineering is one of the favorites for Bangaloreans. S Jayanth, manager (overseas education) of Global Gateway Consultancy says it is difficult for every one to get into educational institutions of Germany, but many Bangaloreans are applying as the universities in this country, which are public funded offer free education for international students

According to a study abroad conducted by Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore Indian students prefer pursuing courses in English-speaking countries like Germany, USA, UK, and Australian students.

Study Abroad - India Foreign Exchange Outflow of $15 to $20 Billion.

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About 290000 students go overseas every year for university education, which costs India a foreign exchange outflow of $15 to $20 billion per year. Among the favorite higher education destinations among Indians are study in Germany US, UK, Australia and France.

An important reason for many Indians choosing to study abroad is the shortage of good institutions in India and growing competition for limited seats. Moreover, the reservation policy in India reduces the availability of seats to general category students, weakening the prospects of a majority of students, says an Assocham report.

The US is the top destination for students from around the world. The Open Doors Report, published by the Institute of International Education, an independent nonprofit organisation with a network of 19 offices and affiliates worldwide, which was released in November 2014, reported a 7% increase in the number of international students.

Most of foreign students stood at 819,644 students in 2012/13, with 55,000 more students than last year enrolled in colleges and universities across the US, the report said. Surprisingly, though India remained the top three countries of origin with China and Korea, the number of Indian students went down by 4% for the second year.

Arjun Seth, director of EdBrand, who leads a group of independent college admissions counsellors who assist students identify ‘right-fit’ college or university options abroad, says US institutes offer students the certainty of quality content. “The flexibility of the system, the freedom to do multidisciplinary courses ensures that the students get a well-rounded education, which helps them discover their strengths,” he said.

With over 1,200 institutions and over 22,000 courses to choose from, Australia  also offers a diverse range of study abroad options for international students. “From July 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014, 24,205 Indians were granted student visas to study in Australia. That is a 32.9% increase over the same period last year,” says an Australian high commission spokesperson.

Many Indian students in New Zealand has also increased by close to 50% in the last five years. “New Zealand has eight public state-funded universities, all of which are listed in the world’s top 500 QS World University Rankings,” says Ziena Jalil, regional director, South and South East Asia, Education New Zealand.

About five years past , many Indian students in France grew by 50%. This is because of various factors such as overall increase in the number of Indian students, higher education costs in the Anglo-Saxon countries, wide range of scholarships across a bouquet of academic disciplines and easier visa rules. Nearly 3,000 students studied in France in 2013.

“Indian students coming to France have access to some of the best academic study abroad institutions in the world, at very low fee. Visa rules have been made easier and students can now stay for an additional year in the country,” Arnaud Mentré, press counsellor, Embassy of France.

Anger Builds over Facebook Manipulation Study Abroad

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Facebook News Feeds has sparked among users who are criticizing the study abroad ethics behind the experiment, which was conducted by Facebook and many Universities of Australia, Germany, Sweden, USA i.e.

Researchers tweaked the feeds of 689,003 users to show a disproportionate number of positive or negative statuses for one week in January 2012. They found that the emotions of others on your News Feed can affect your mood, and published the results in journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences). However, they did not inform users that they were manipulating News Feeds, and many questioned the study's abroad ethics.

Facebook legally is allowed to do this. As soon as users sign up for the social network, they agree to give up their data for analysis, testing and research. In this case, however, it is not the research people are criticizing it's the manipulation of data without users' prior consent or knowledge study.