India Least Expensive Destination for Foreign Education: Survey

India has emerged as the least expensive foreign destination for university undergraduate students among a list of 15 countries, according to a survey by banking and financial services company HSBC.

However, the survey ranks India eighth in terms of quality in university education. The US tops the ranking in terms of quality in undergraduate education.

Among the fifteen countries surveyed by HSBC, Australia, Singapore and USA occupy the top three positions in the expenditure chart for overseas students, while India, Mexico and China are the least expensive.

According to the report, the average annual cost including university fees and living expenditure of an undergraduate international student in India is $5,642, of which $581 is university fees. This is far below the total expenditure for undergraduate students in Australia ($42,093), Singapore ($39,229) and USA ($36,564).

Source: HSBC

Another interesting finding of this survey shows that nearly 85 per cent of Indian parents would consider sending their child abroad for a better university education and believe that foreign education offers some key benefits to children.

According to the survey, Indian parents perceive that USA provides the highest quality of education and about 62 per cent of them ranked USA in their top three destinations for quality education.

The report titled 'The Value of Education: Springboard for Success', surveyed over 4,500 parents in 15 countries.

Sanjiv Sud, head of retail banking and wealth management, HSBC India said: "The HSBC survey reasserts the perception that the quality of education is better overseas. However, the fact remains that the costs of international education are substantially higher.