Europe, the most favoured student-destination

HYDERABAD: The diminishing value of the rupee vis-a-vis the dollar is dissuading students from flying to the US for higher studies. Now, the preferred destination is Europe for most of the students pursuing technical courses. A number of B.Tech students, who used to invariably opt for the US, are now opting to learn foreign languages especially German and French to get admissions in universities in Germany and France."The students of Mechanical and Electrical and Communications Engineering prefer applying to Germany for better standards and availability of scholarships," says R Siddharth, a final year B.Tech student.Following the steep decline in fellowships offered by several countries and the UK shutting down a record number of colleges, many students are, it appears, treading the road less travelled by. "Though Hyderabad is chiefly a US market followed by the UK, we have increasing number of students applying for Australia, Canada, Ireland and Singapore. Germany is preferred by students opting for technical courses in higher education," observes Nagaraj of Chopras consultancy services at Begumpet.The race for better placements has also given a fillip to students learning oriental languages."I took up Japanese though it is difficult to learn. Many multi-nationals offer good packages to those who know foreign languages as it finds application in IT-enabled services. Also, Japanese universities look at only elementary knowledge of the language and once I pass the level-5 of the course, I can easily apply to any university,” says V Yamini, a student of third year B.Tech in EEE. Most of her juniors and batch-mates prefer learning French or German as the script remains the same, admits Yamini.The foreign language institutes have also seen an increase in number of students opting to learn languages for ease of admissions abroad. “German, French and Spanish are in demand round the year. Students of B.Pharmacy or B.Tech courses who want to apply for higher education usually take up German. Most of the students learn French for SAP client interaction," says the director of Vivekananda Foundation for foreign languages SK Srinivas.