In recent years, the trend of studying abroad in India has grown dramatically. Due to this trend, the number of students opting for universities outside India for their higher education has been growing constantly and is expected to reach 1.8 million by 2024. However, it does not mean that earlier Indian students didn’t like the idea of studying abroad. In fact, Indians have made a name for themselves in various fields such as politics, business, literature, and cinema after graduating from foreign universities.
To make it easier for you to understand, we have come up with a list of 10 Indian luminaries who studied outside of India :
- Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Gujrat, India in 1869 and left India in 1888 to pursue law and jurisprudence at University College, London. He is considered the Father of the Nation in India as he led a non-violent anti-colonialist campaign in India. His birthday is celebrated worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence.
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- Dr. Manmohan Singh
Dr. Manmohan Singh is acknowledged as the architect of economic reforms in India. From becoming the Finance Minister in 1991 to becoming the country’s Prime Minister in 2004, Dr. Singh was responsible for various policies shaping the nation. He is also very popular for his contribution to education as a student and also as a professor. He went to both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.
- Shashi Tharoor
Shashi Tharoor is a well-known Indian politician and writer. Currently, he is serving as the MP for Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Formerly, he was the Under-Secretary General of the United Nations. As a writer, Tharoor has authored 23 works of fiction and non-fiction since 1981. Tharoor obtained a dual masters from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, USA.
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- Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata is one of the biggest industrialists in India and the former chairman of the Tata group. Ratan Tata is also the recipient of both the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan Awards. Tata received a degree in architecture from Cornell University, and in 1975, he attended the seven-week Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.
- Sundar Pichai
Sundar Pichai is amongst the most popular business executives in the world, and obviously for all the right reasons. He is currently serving as CEO of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google. After finishing his engineering at IIT Kharagpur, he earned an M.S. from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
- Indra Nooyi
Indra Nooyi is an Indian-American business executive. She is the former CEO of PepsiCo. She also serves on the boards of Amazon and ICC. Nooyi gained sudden public recognition in 2014 when she was ranked number 13 on the Forbes list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women. Her higher education started at the University of Madras. After that, she did her Post Graduate Programme Diploma from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, and then she obtained her Master’s from Yale School of Management in 1980.
- Kiran Desai
Kiran Desai, the daughter of novelist Anita Desai, is an Indian author who has been awarded the Betty Trask Award, the Man Booker Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award. Kiran moved to the USA at age 15 and continued her further education there. Kiran Desai studied creative writing at Bennington College, Hollins University, and Columbia University.
- Amitav Ghosh
Amitav Ghosh is an Indian writer and winner of the 54th Jnanpith award in 2018, India’s highest literary honour. He was also awarded the Padma Shri Award by the President of India. Amitav has written numerous works of fiction and non-fiction, but it is the historical fiction that he is best known for. After completing his education in India, Amitav won the Inlaks Foundation scholarship to complete a D. Phil. in social anthropology at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford.
- Ranbir Kapoor
The prince charming of Bollywood, Ranbir Kapoor, belongs to a family of Bollywood legends and has been in the limelight since his early days. Ranbir has been featured in Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list since 2012. Ranbir did his pre-university education in India and then relocated to New York City to learn filmmaking at the School of Visual Arts and subsequently pursued method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
- Parineeti Chopra
Parineeti Chopra is an Indian actress and singer who appears in Bollywood films and is a recipient of a Filmfare and National Film Award. She has appeared on Forbes India’s Celebrity 100 list since 2013. Chopra obtained a triple honours degree in business, finance, and economics from Manchester Business School and worked as a PR consultant for Yash Chopra Films. Later, she signed a deal with a company as an actress.
After reading all these cases, it is safe to say that studying abroad provides numerous career opportunities and exposure to students no matter the field they are interested in.
Post-Covid, various countries have made their policies more student-friendly to attract more international students. If you are someone who wants to study abroad, then this might be the best time for you to get that degree.
