India is one of only seven countries in the world that receive more than $20 million in educational scholarships from foreign countries, according to Unesco’s latest global statistical report. The others are Pakistan, China, Moldova, Algeria, Syria and Morocco. The Official Development Assistance scholarships given out by some of the OECD countries include support for pursuing higher education and research. This assistance reaches the beneficiaries as stipends, tuition fee waivers and allowances.
The apparent aim of ODA is to promote international relations and human capital development among the recipient nations. The tacit intentions include deepening the rich nations’ soft power and epistemological dominance. We must ask why only India and Pakistan are in the $20-million club among the Central and South Asian countries. The report indicates that the global average is $6 million.
What does the outlier figure for India indicate? Three arguments can be considered: merit of Indian students and researchers in global academia, lack of domestic support to retain our best brains and academic influence of developed countries.
The arguments are best argued with data. According to the Union ministry of education, India contributed 5.2 percent of global research publications in 2024. Among the G20 nations, India ranked third in research output behind China and the US. On the other hand, the World Bank reminds us that India’s investment in research and development was just 0.65 percent of the GDP in 2020. This is significantly lower than in the US (3.45 percent), Japan (3.44 percent), Germany (3.15 percent) and South Korea (4.94 percent).
The Economic Survey for 2023-24 stated that the total expenditure on education by the central and state governments was just 2.7 percent of the GDP. It has not exceeded 2.9 percent since 2020-21. Expenditure on education as a share of the total expenditure for social services declined to 9.2 percent in 2023- 24 from 10.7 percent in 2017-18. This low investment is continuing to cause a brain drain, an observation reinforced by Unesco’s latest numbers.
The talented young minds attracted by foreign aid also allow themselves to be influenced by the academic interests and norms of the ODA donors. This has a serious structural impact on India’s education system, and at a larger level, on society and economy. The trickledown of research ideas, methodology, language, curriculums and funding structures happens more clearly among the top ODA-receiving nations.
The scholars who receive foreign funding are placed on a higher echelon of the academic hierarchy and their ideas often dominate in shaping the curriculum and research practices and priorities. The trajectory of knowledge and skills in developing countries, therefore, mimics that in the donor countries. Back home, the hierarchical position of ODA recipients is apparent in the recruitment preferences of the top private and public institutes.
Such fetters deepen the colonialisation of minds many scholars have written about. The argument is surely not against receiving foreign scholarships and financial aid. Instead, we need to be clear-eyed about their possible impact on the nation’s future.
In this, it’s also important to see India’s position as an ODA provider in education. Within that, the critical question is about the amount we provide against what we receive. This is one way to see the relative position of the country in its developmental trajectory. Unfortunately, such data is not readily available from the OECD. Nor does the socio economic survey of India or any other government document provide it. From what we can estimate, the relatively thinner inflow of students reflects our inability to provide enough support to foreign scholars and provide them an attractive, globally competitive education system.
Given that ODA mostly serves as an outlet for students from elite families, it is not a solution to the broader problem of rising demand-supply mismatch in India’s higher education. Hence ODA cannot be a solution to the shortage of quality institutions in India. In fact, they are counterproductive for the equity initiatives in higher education. It does not enthuse the scholars to develop an epistemological framework to fit into India’s social needs and resources.
The maths is stark. The Indian government’s scholarship supports are mainly for Indian students. The growing school system, with 26.52 crore students—with more than 11 crore learners in skilling institutions—will create enormous pressure on the higher education system in the near future. As per the Union ministry of education, the gross enrolment ratio has reached 90.6 percent at the elementary level and 78.7 percent at the secondary and 58.4 percent at the higher secondary levels. Meanwhile, the GER in higher education has risen from 23.7 percent in 2014 to 28.4 in 2021. The higher education institutions in India, on the other hand, accommodate only 4.33 crore students in India. This is far behind the National Education Policy’s projected 50 percent GER by 2035.
An outcry was heard in the 1960s, with the Kothari Commission recommending spending at least 6 percent of the gross national product on education. I join the chorus in 2026 along with many other educationists.
Amruth G Kumar | Professor, School of Education, I Central University of Kerala
(Views are personal)
(amruth@cukerala.ac.in)