- Where are the best universities?
- Which offer better options for me?
- Is the ranking the only parameter which is important?
When it comes to the choice for higher-education, USA v/s Europe is an interesting debate. Each has it’s merits and demerits and some unique advantages that can make a dramatic difference to your future plans.
The US normally scores well in the areas of student life & focus on extra-curricular activities, while European universities are normally considered more traditional in their approach – more academically inclined. Where the European universities score easily, is the cost of education, thus making ROI calculations interesting.
Of course, Europe has many pockets of excellence – UK is a clear leader for international students – across subjects – given it’s high quality universities. Ireland is strong in I.T. as well. These 2 countries attract the English-speaking students. Where they loose out to mainland Europe is the Schengen visa. Germany is considered very attractive for Engineering while Italy beckons the fashion students. France is a Management ‘Mecca’ and Switzerland is heaven for Hospitality programmes. Central & Eastern Europe also have pockets of Excellence ( and we’re not talking of MBBS! )
At the same time, USA is also facing increased competition from it’s northern border too – students have been heading to Canada in droves. Universities like University of Toronto & McGill are consistently among the top-tier of universities globally. For Indian students, Canada has many other attractions too, as it a multi-cultural society.
The US continues to attract the brightest in Computers and Science, thanks mainly to it’s elite private universities . That’s an area that UK & Canada trump it – their top universities are Public universities. This fact gives a lot of comfort to prospective students from non-traditional backgrounds – families who normally would not have thought of sending their child outside the country.
So if you’re considering studying outside India, take some time and list down your priorities and then look at the different countries. You may be pleasantly- surprised at the outcome.
