Selecting country to study abroad

Introduction:

Now that you have decided to study abroad, the first questions come to mind is which country to prefer? There are so many countries with top universities and courses and to identify the one suitable for your customized requirements is confusing. All countries offer a set of advantages, a better lifestyle, quality education, etc. There are pros and cons to each one of them as expected and hence we have created a 5-point article to help you shortlist countries.

Finalize Course

Whatever may be the other factors, selection, of course, should be the priority for every student. The right course will offer opportunities in the relevant and interesting field for the student. Most likely, this is your career path and how well you do in your life depends on this. While most of the top colleges across different countries offer variety of courses there is always some university or a country that delivers the course modules that you aspire to study.

Depending on your field of study, you will then begin searching for a course that offers education. Bear in mind that some countries are known to have an abundance of a course due to demand for local industries while some countries might not offer a particular course for the same situation in the opposite. E.g. Luxury Brand Management is a course offered mostly in Europe with no Australian universities offering the same.

The local job market 

Every country is known for a few industries and sectors as its strongest points. These sectors offer more jobs, competitive advantage and are usually ahead in terms of innovation and market competitiveness. For a big country like the USA where there are hundreds of universities, merely selecting and shortlisting by ranking may not be the best option. There are specific industrial and financial belts that are concentrated in certain cities and taking a degree from a university close by would add great value.

Every curriculum requires industrial training and dissertation. Research in a particular field is most likely industry-led and constant interaction with the professional world helps you prepare and stand out for permanent enrolment.

Hence we highly recommend that once you have chosen the course you are planning to undertake, look at the cities that the universities/ institutes are close to and what kind of industries mark that region. Ideally, it should be closer to the big names in the industry of your choice.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Many students while researching countries look at only the total cost of education including the living expenses and then shortlist accordingly. We would rather recommend an approach where the student calculates or estimates the Return on Investment for different countries as per your course.

A return on investment, simply put is the expected earnings after the course divided by the cost of acquiring the necessary education. For example, the same course may cost you more from one country than the other, but when you look at the average starting salaries and the number of opportunities present, return on investment can be calculated.

A starting point for this research would be to visit the popular job portals for that country and look for starting or median salaries for the job profile you are likely to be considered for after completing your studies. Bear in mind that you will be paying taxes in most of the countries and involving this in your final calculation is often missed by students.

Post-study work visa

It is most likely that you can calculate the Return on Investment for a country only if the country allows the student to stay back and work in the country for some time. Popular countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, etc allow students to stay back and work in the country for some time. This allows the students to not only gain valuable corporate exposure but also pay for the education loan they have taken. While most countries do allow this for enough years there are also countries like Singapore which has no post-study work visa.

Keep in mind, post-study work visa does not guarantee you will find work or vice versa.

Click here to check the post-study work visa comparison for all countries.

Value of the degree in India

One important point for those students who would prefer to come back to India would be to check the validity of the degree and its acceptance in India.

Even for those who plan to stay back and work abroad, we cannot forego the worst situation and the possibility of your returning to India if nothing goes as per plan. If a student does not check the credibility of the degree, you might end up with a huge student loan, no relevant work experience and a degree that does nothing to your prospects. Even for more acceptable degrees like MBA, we still recommend you check the value of that MBA.

Conclusion:

There are other things like cost of living, security, and ease of getting admission, Visa procedure that one must consider but we give the above more precedence for the obvious reasons that all the top destinations are somewhat similar to each other. One country might offer a cheaper cost of living but a more stricter entry requirements while another country might offer you easier admissions but have rather high cost of living.

You can always book a free session with us and let an expert guide you through the entire study abroad journey.