Studying outside India has always been considered as a privilege for elite-class people, however, with the availability of many scholarships from governments, private organizations, or NGOs has made it possible for people from different sections of society to fulfill their dream of going to any foreign country and to peruse their education; internet boom has also helped tremendously in order to the access of information breaking the stigma of elite class theory.
Every year, many aspiring students from different social backgrounds try to get admission to foreign universities from India. One of the most important aspects to achieve this goal is finances. Studying in any elite Universities anywhere in the world and staying there costs a hefty amount of money. Although there are many scholarships available, the reality is, just like in any other field, the competition is very high in this case, which means not everyone can avail of scholarships. Then what are the options we have? Let’s break down the economic structure of the entire plan.
One of the most important factors is the turion fees (if there is no scholarship of any kind). Tuition fees can and mostly vary from University to University and course to course and of course country to country as well. The second factor is the living cost for at least the entire duration of the program. Normally Universities provide an estimated amount for a year of stay and advice to open a blocked account (at least in Europe). These are often considered as the main aspect, and we generally tend to make our financial plan around those figures. But there are other aspects that we forget to consider or take information and during the time of execution those money requirements seem to be overwhelming. Confuse? I will explain.
Undoubtedly tuition fees and living costs are the big chunks of the pie but that’s not the entire pie. After getting admission, the most important requirement to travel is the visa requirement, which has a long to-do list. Apart from the lengthy paperwork, one needs to pay for the visa, which may cost around ₹40,000 to ₹60,000 depending on the country to country. Remember here we are talking about long-term student visas, not tourist visas. For most countries there is a mandatory medical certificate which again can cost from ₹2000 to ₹4000 and if the prescribed lab or doctor is not on the city/state that one lives in then travelling cost also we can add on to that. Submission of visa also is not possible in every state and for that one needs to travel to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata or any other city which will again cost a healthy amount of money. As we are talking about foreign countries so definitely exchange rate is also involved and that can also increase the total amount by 10% to 12% if the estimate had been made using google currency converter. At the destination one needs to find a temporary place for living for at least few days as in most cases contract for any place to stay permanently takes time.
After considering all the different scenarios we can estimate around ₹ 90,000 to ₹ 1,00,000 extra or even a bit more money is required apart from tuition fees and living costs. This article aims to give an idea about the possible scenarios in which money will be required so that one can plan accordingly, and the process becomes easy to handle.