In this Inbound Insight series article, we examine shifting patterns in Indian student mobility and explore this cohort’s priorities when searching for student accommodation, based on data gathered through the Global Student Living Index.
India remains one of the world’s most important source markets for international students. According to data submitted to the Indian Parliament by the Ministry of External Affairs, more than 1.25 million Indian students were pursuing higher education abroad as of January 2025. While this represents a 5.7% decrease from 2024, when 1.33 million Indian students were studying overseas, India continues to sit behind only China as a source of outbound international students.
However, while demand remains substantial, the shape of Indian student mobility is changing. For much of the past decade, demand has been concentrated in the major anglophone destinations – Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. These countries continue to attract the largest numbers of Indian students, but policy changes, visa uncertainty, affordability pressures and competition from newer destinations are reshaping the market.
Outbound destinations
- Canada remains the largest single host destination according to Indian government data, with around 427,000 Indian students recorded as studying in Canadian tertiary education institutions in 2024. More recent trends point to a sharp cooling in demand. After rapid growth through 2022 and 2023, Canada has introduced international student enrolment caps, tightened post-graduation work permit eligibility and increased visa requirements. The impact has been substantial: study permit issuances to Indian nationals reportedly fell from 149,875 between January and August 2023 to just 9,955 in the same period in 2025.
- The United States has strengthened its position in higher education specifically. According to the Open Doors 2025 Report, 363,019 Indian students were enrolled in US higher education institutions in 2024/25, a 9.5% increase on the previous year. India has now overtaken China as the largest source of international students in the US for the first time since 2009, accounting for 31% of all international students. Yet even here, the outlook is not entirely settled. Applications from India to US universities fell by around 13% year-on-year in 2024/25, while the 2025/26 intake saw a decline in new international student enrolments across all nationalities, with visa application concerns cited by most institutions as a contributing factor.
- The United Kingdom tells a more mixed story. India remains the UK’s largest source of international students, but recent policy changes have dampened demand. HESA data for 2024/25 shows 94,955 new Indian entrants to UK higher education, down 11.7% year-on-year and around 25% below the 2022/23 peak of 126,580. The introduction of the Graduate Route in 2019 had previously helped drive a sharp increase in Indian enrolments. However, the January 2024 ban on most taught postgraduate and undergraduate students bringing dependants has had a particularly strong impact on Indian students, who had previously been one of the largest groups using dependant visas. Further uncertainty has been introduced by proposals in the May 2025 Immigration White Paper to reduce the Graduate Route from two years to 18 months.
- Australia remains another major destination for Indian students, with India now the second-largest source of international enrolments at Australian universities. As of December 2025, there were 142,437 Indian students studying in Australia, including 32,451 new entrants, representing a 3% increase on the previous year. Although Australia has also tightened parts of its international education system, it continues to benefit from strong brand recognition, post-study work appeal and an established Indian student community.
Emerging destinations
- At the same time, newer and lower-cost destinations are gaining ground. Germany has emerged as one of the most significant growth markets, with the number of Indian students rising from around 20,700 in 2022 to 58,833 in 2024/25. Its appeal is underpinned by low or no tuition fees at many institutions, a growing number of English-taught programmes and a strong reputation in science, engineering and technology fields.
- Other European destinations are also expanding their share. France has grown from 4,807 Indian students in 2020 to more than 9,100 in 2024/25 and has set a target of hosting 30,000 Indian students by 2030. Ireland has also seen rapid growth, with India overtaking the US as its top international student source country in 2023/24 following a 50% year-on-year increase to more than 7,000 enrolments.
- Beyond Europe, the UAE continues to attract significant numbers of Indian students, supported by geographic proximity, strong diaspora links and an expanding transnational education offer. Indian students reportedly account for 42% of the UAE’s international student population. Uzbekistan and Russia have also gained traction, particularly among price-sensitive students and those seeking more accessible visa pathways.
For accommodation providers, the key implication is that demand from Indian students remains high, but it is becoming more fluid. The traditional anglophone destinations are no longer guaranteed to capture growth simply by virtue of their historic appeal. Students and families are weighing post-study work rights, visa risk, affordability, safety, institutional reputation and the cost of living more carefully than before. As mobility patterns diversify, providers in both established and emerging destinations will need to understand not only where Indian students are going, but what they are prioritising when they arrive.
Search priorities
Data from the latest Global Student Living Index show that students from India have priorities broadly similar to those of the international student cohort as a whole, but with some notable differences. Communal spaces are more important to Indian students than to the broader international cohort (32% vs 27%), as are kitchen size and facilities (45% vs 41%), opportunities for socialising (25% vs 20%) and flexible contracts (39% vs 35%).
Room type and rent
Students from India are more likely to live in a private bedroom (74%) than international students overall (61%) and are significantly less likely (20%) to live in a studio flat than all international students (33%).
In 2026 Q2, 8% of Indian students said they rely on part-time work to help cover accommodation costs – an increase from 2025 Q2, when 5% relied on part-time work to cover their accommodation costs. Indian students are also significantly more likely (22%) to fund their accommodation costs via a loan than international students (9%).
Search resources
When searching for accommodation, students from India are significantly more likely than all international students to use university websites (65% vs 51%) and review websites (23% vs 18%). Indian students are also more likely (12% vs 7%) to use educational consultants and agents during the search process than the international student average – a pattern consistent with India’s well-developed overseas education advisory sector, which plays a central role in supporting students through the application and transition process.
Booking
Indian students are most likely to have booked accommodation through a university housing office (45% vs 35% of all international students), followed by direct booking with a private halls provider (34% vs 32% of all international students). Booking via an educational consultant or agent is slightly less common among Indian students (2%) than across the international student cohort as a whole (5%) – this is of note given that during the search process, educational consultants/agents are more likely to be used by Indian students than other international students.
Wellbeing
Global Student Living Index data shows that Indian students experience a distinct profile of wellbeing challenges compared to the broader international cohort. Work-related pressures are more frequently reported difficulties among Indian students than among international students generally. Indian students are significantly more likely to say they struggle to find part-time work (42% vs 32%) and work placements (27% vs 20%). They are also more likely to say they struggle with work-life balance (28% vs 24%) and with gaining the right skills/experience for their career (25% vs 22%).
Together, these findings suggest that work plays an especially important role in the Indian student experience – both as a way to manage the cost of studying abroad and as a key part of the expected return on that investment. For accommodation providers, this points to the value of support that combines social connection with practical signposting to employability resources, peer networks and services that help students manage the pressures of work, study and settling into a new country.
