As the Recruitment Director, Diwakar’s role is focused on leading and overseeing all student recruitment activities in South Asia. Working in conjunction with the global recruitment team & university partners, his responsibilities include ensuring that students and their advisors receive outstanding service supported by customer-focused processes. Diwakar brings to INTO a wealth of regional expertise and global mindset. With 1.5 decade long experience in the higher education sector, he currently develops and maintains partnerships with key stakeholders in India along with building preference for university partners in US, UK, and Australia.7 Prior to joining INTO in 2009, he was associated with Campus Group India Pvt Ltd leading operations and partnerships for universities in Australia and New Zealand.
In the post-pandemic era, students are gearing up to fly abroad for their international degrees. There is recovery happening in the international education sector after two years of disruptions and the positive sentiment in the students to move overseas for further studies is strongly felt. So far in this year, 82,000 student visas have been issued by the US missions in India, higher than in any previous year, and Indian students received more American student visas than any other country.
According to the global survey by INTO University Partnerships, the study abroad demand confidence among Indian education agents is higher than the global average. More than nine out of ten Indian agents (93%) expect to send more students to the UK in the current academic year than they did last year, with nearly two thirds expecting to send significantly more. Meanwhile, 71% expect to send more students to Australia, 87% to Canada and 92% to the US.
Students are looking to transform their lives and are confidently looking at foreign education at this point of time. There are multiple reasons which are encouraging students to consider educational qualifications from abroad. Majority of the students are motivated because of better quality of education available in major destination countries. This coupled with a wider variety of courses available to choose from, makes international studies very attractive. Additionally, students can also enrol in multiple courses of interest to gain a wider knowledge base and have access to a wider job market. To further career prospects, students are looking at employability as a huge deciding factor. Post-study work opportunities are plenty and international degree holders are often the preferred choice for companies given the wide academic exposure their degree entails.
Another very strong reason to move to different countries for education is the chance to gain an international perspective which allows the broadening of one’s world-wide view. It enables a person to develop a multi-faceted personality which is an asset for an employer. Foreign universities are an amalgamation of different cultures and languages which gives student a very good exposure. A student can also master their communication skills and learn new languages. The cultural and environmental immersion can help in fast picking up of different languages as one engages with native speakers of the language.
Students also strongly consider campus life, and extracurricular activities while choosing destinations as these can help one hone their existing hobbies and talents or encourage the development of new ones.
If students decide to return to their homeland, they may have an added advantage for holding an international degree, while looking for jobs. The reason for this is that overseas study helps in enhancing technological, interpersonal and management skills. These can be leveraged in the workplace to gain an edge over competitors.
To sum up, students access life-changing educational, professional, and personal experiences in the universities and countries of their choice which widens their horizons and gives them the wings to fly towards a bright future.