Steady rise of girls going abroad for higher studies: Edufest speakers
HYDERABAD: More than 60 delegates representing over 100 universities from the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland took part in the 'Global Edufest 2023’, jointly organised by the Institute of Management and Foreign Studies (IMFS) and T-Hub.
Many of the speakers said that nearly 82,500 F1 (student) visas were given by American embassies last year, which is a record.
Ajaya Kumar Vemulapati, partner of IMFS Hyderabad, said, "There has been a significant increase in the number of girls going abroad for higher education in the last six to seven years. A major factor for this is the mindset of the students and their parents. Today, it hardly matters to the parents whether they have a son or daughter. Earlier the tendency was to educate their daughters till graduation and getting them married. Today, girls are thinking of being well-educated and having a good job. Towards this, they are opting for higher education abroad.”
Vemulapati said, “Families where both parents are well educated are not hesitating to send their only daughter abroad. Girls who get 8-8.5 CGPA in their engineering graduation and good scores in exams like GMAT, GRE, TOEFL and IELTS can easily get admission in top universities. In such cases, they can easily avail of the educational loan without collateral security too. That's why girls from both Telugu states are going abroad in good numbers. This is a good sign for our society too.”
Various stakeholders of the study abroad journey like banks and NBFCs offering student loans, prep test agencies like ETS, PTE, insurance companies and forex remitters were present at the event, which was inaugurated by Prof. R. Limbadri, chairman, TS Council for Higher Education.
Mahankali Srinivasa Rao, CEO, T-Hub, Prof. Ghanta Chakrapani, former chairman of TSPSC, Allam Narayana, chairman of Press Academy, and V. Pattabhi, senior advocate, Telangana High Court, were present.
