India enrolled 58,134 international students from 173 countries during the 2023-24 academic year, with overseas enrolment rising 18.9% over the past five years, according to the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE).
Released by the Ministry of Education, the survey shows international student enrolment increased from 48,898 in 2019/20 to 58,134 in 2023/24. Growth was recorded across both genders, with male enrolment rising from 32,386 to 37,295 and female enrolment increasing from 16,512 to 20,839 over the same period.
The figures come as India continues efforts to internationalise its higher education sector through the Study in India initiative, launched in 2018, alongside reforms under the National Education Policy 2020 aimed at strengthening global partnerships, expanding cross-border collaboration and encouraging greater internationalisation across the sector.
“This is steady but slow progress toward a finish line that has itself moved,” Rahul Choudaha, principal of DrEducation Research, which specialises in international higher education research and policy, told The PIE News, noting that the government’s original Study in India initiative had aimed to attract 200,000 international students by 2023.
With just over 58,100 overseas students recorded in 2023/24 – only around three in 10 of the government’s original target achieved – Choudaha said meeting its ambitions would require faster visa processing, clearer post-study work pathways and stronger institutional reputations.
Despite attracting students from a wide range of countries, India’s inbound student population remains concentrated among neighbouring and regional markets.
Nepal remained the largest source country, accounting for 24.1% of all international students enrolled in India. It was followed by the United Arab Emirates (7%), the United States (5.9%), Bangladesh (5.9%), Nigeria (5.5%) and Zimbabwe (4%), while the top 10 source countries together accounted for 63.8% of all international enrolment.
At the same time, the survey points to the diversity of India’s international student population, with higher education institutions enrolling students from 173 countries, including Lebanon, Burkina Faso, Mongolia, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Chile.
Despite the breadth of countries represented, Choudaha said the figures did not necessarily mean India had become a global study destination.
“With one in four foreign students coming from Nepal, India is clearly still primarily a regional hub, not a global one,” he said.
“That’s not a poor grade or a bad position – it simply reflects India’s value proposition: proximity, shared culture, and affordability, rather than global education pull.”
Choudaha compared India with Malaysia, which hosts roughly three times as many international students and benefits from a more mature international branch campus ecosystem and stronger recruitment and support services.
Not only campus infrastructure, but also the lack of flexible post-study work opportunities still remains a major deterrentEldho Mathews, KSHEC
Echoing the need for greater diversification, Eldho Mathews, program officer for internationalisation of higher education at the Kerala State Higher Education Council (KSHEC), said the latest trends highlighted the importance of expanding India’s recruitment efforts beyond its traditional source markets.
“The trends clearly show that India must diversify its outreach beyond South Asia and parts of Africa, targeting Southeast Asia and Central Asia to attract more students,” said Mathews. “Not only campus infrastructure, but also the lack of flexible post-study work opportunities still remains a major deterrent.”
Within India, Karnataka narrowly overtook Punjab as the leading destination for international students, hosting 7,914 students compared with Punjab’s 7,902. Maharashtra (6,190), Uttar Pradesh (5,953) and Tamil Nadu (5,694) completed the top five host states.
Undergraduate programs continued to dominate international enrolment, accounting for 73.6% of all overseas students, with 42,779 international students pursuing bachelor’s degrees.
A further 9,845 were enrolled in postgraduate programs, while comparatively smaller numbers studied at diploma, doctoral, certificate and integrated levels.
The international student data was released alongside the wider AISHE 2023-24 survey, which recorded a record 45 million students enrolled across India’s higher education system.
Although overseas enrolment has continued to grow, international students still account for only around 0.13% of the country’s total higher education population, highlighting both the progress made and the scale of India’s ambitions to become a larger destination for globally mobile students.
The latest release has, however, also prompted questions about the timeliness of the data. Although the survey covers the 2022/23 and 2023/24 academic years, the reports were published only in July 2026, leading some higher education experts to argue that the delay limits their usefulness for real-time policy planning.
Speaking to The Telegraph, former University Grants Commission (UGC) secretary R.K. Chauhan said timely AISHE data is important for decisions ranging from expanding higher education institutions to improving access and faculty recruitment, while Vinoba Bhave University vice-chancellor C.B. Sharma argued that data released more than two years after collection is “not very relevant for planning schemes”.
Looking ahead, Choudaha said international branch campuses could strengthen India’s appeal as a study destination over time, although their impact was unlikely to be immediate.
His comments come as India continues to open its higher education sector to top-ranked overseas universities under UGC regulations, with dozens of international university campuses now operational or launching for the 2026/27 academic year.
“There’s genuine appeal in earning a British, American, or Australian degree in India at nearly two-thirds of the home-campus cost. But tuition fees at these international campuses run nearly twice as high as at Tier-1 Indian universities,” stated Choudaha.
“Beyond fees, the ecosystem around recruiting, supporting, and retaining international students — visas, housing, campus life, word-of-mouth — takes years to mature, and these campuses are just getting started. So the potential is real, but it’s a medium-term story: the runway is there, the plane hasn’t taken off yet.”
