Indians have sent a massive ₹1.76 lakh crore abroad in the last decade to pay for the education of students studying overseas, new data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has revealed. The amount is so huge that it could have built more than 60 new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

According to the RBI, Indian students remitted about ₹29,000 crore for studies abroad in 2023–24, almost the same as the year before. Ten years ago, in 2013–14, the figure stood at only ₹2,429 crore. This means education spending overseas has shot up by nearly 1,200% in just a decade.

The data was shared by RBI in response to a Right to Information (RTI) request. The figures were originally in US dollars and later converted into rupees using the current exchange rate.

Government data shows that 7,59,064 Indians went abroad for higher studies in 2024, compared to 8,92,989 in 2023. This marks a 15% decline, largely because several countries tightened their visa rules.

Even with the drop, the number is still far above pre-pandemic levels. For instance, in 2019, just under 5.9 lakh students travelled overseas for education.

Overseas spending vs India’s education budget

The scale of foreign education spending becomes clear when compared with India’s higher education budget. The Union government allocated ₹50,078 crore to the Department of Higher Education for 2025–26.

In one year alone, Indian families spent more than half this amount on studies abroad. Over ten years, the total outflow was more than three times the government’s annual higher education budget.

To put this into perspective, if it costs about ₹2,823 crore to set up an IIT, then the amount remitted abroad in 2023–24 alone could have funded over 10 IITs. The total spending of the past decade could have built around 62 IITs.

While the RBI has detailed the outflow, it does not have information on bank charges, forex mark-ups, or how much of this money was routed through banks versus fintech platforms.

The number of education remittance transactions has also risen sharply, from 3.63 lakh in 2018–19 to nearly 10 lakh in 2022–23, before slightly easing to 9.43 lakh in 2023–24.

The data paints a clear picture: Indian families are spending more than ever to send their children overseas for higher studies. While this shows the growing demand for foreign education, it also raises serious questions about the quality, affordability, and capacity of higher education within India.



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