Seven out of ten students who flew out of Kerala for higher studies either do not wish to come back at all or are undecided on returning and majority of them were fuelled by a desire for freedom and exposure, reveals a survey by Kerala Academy of Sciences. The survey was done from September 2023 to January 2024 to gauge the reasons for the massive exodus of students from Kerala.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said at the inauguration of 36th Kerala Science Congress that the state was implementing a scheme called Brain Gain to tap Kerala researchers abroad for the benefit of the state. Well, going by the survey results, only 28% of the students who took part in the survey have plans to return to Kerala.

Around 26% of the students said that they left Kerala to gain more exposure, to explore new places, to pursue freedom and to step out of their comfort zone. Two out of ten students blamed the lower quality of education, inadequate research, and infrastructure facilities. They regretted that Kerala did not have any institute of global or national repute, a brand that would draw students. Another 19% of students blamed inadequate industrial exposure and placement opportunities. Only 8% of the students were drawn to the option of earning while learning abroad.

UK, Canada, and Germany are the most preferred destinations for students who went abroad. The survey also revealed that the participants have flown to as many as 25 countries including Azerbaijan, Chile, China, Spain, and Sweden. As for the institutes in India, half of the students chose Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and Delhi came a close third with 17%.

Other countries preferred by Keralite students are Azerbaijan, Chile, China, Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.

(Rest of the states are: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal)

Minister for Finance K N Balagopal recently told the Assembly that around 30,000 students were leaving Kerala annually for education, which translated to a flight of Rs 10,000 crore.

Prof G M Nair, President of Kerala Academy of Sciences, which conducted the survey said that most of the students were dissatisfied with the quality of education in colleges and universities, lack of academic freedom, inadequate research infrastructure, lack of hands-on training and limited industry exposure, absence of institutes of global or national repute, and lack of job opportunities. "But for most of the students who took part in our survey, the single biggest reason to leave Kerala was the urge to explore new places and the need for more exposure," said Prof Nair, who was also the former advisor to Kerala Biotechnology Commission.

Of the total 608 participants in the survey, more than half of the students left Kerala with an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in basic science. 62% of students waited till they earned a diploma or a university degree before they moved out of the state, while 231 students left Kerala for higher education after schooling (Classes X and XII).

Citing the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) report, Pinarayi Vijayan said Kerala has 21% of the best colleges in the country and 351 colleges and 8 universities recognised by NAAC. "That is not enough," he said. The students seem to agree.

The participants of the survey highlighted the perceived drawbacks of the institutes. Nearly 18% of students felt that Kerala has few institutes of global or national repute of all the colleges and universities. Majority of them opined that lack of job opportunities in Kerala was the single biggest drawback of higher education in Kerala and they moved out expecting to find a job elsewhere.

Around 75% of students said their present college, university or institute had better credentials than the ones they left in Kerala. Only 4% said they moved to a worse institute. There was some consolation though as 43% of the students gave a 'satisfactory' grade to universities and technical institutes in Kerala, and 42% of students gave a 'satisfactory' grade to colleges.

Among those who were unhappy with the quality of education in Kerala, nearly 29% blamed the inadequate research exposure and lab facilities in the state while others ascribed their dissatisfaction to outdated curriculum and dearth of hands-on training and experience.

Prof Nair said the complaint of the students of not having research infrastructure is not entirely true. "Colleges cannot have extensive facilities required for the entire research programme for obvious lack of funds," he said. The Union and State governments are running common infrastructure such as the Central Laboratory for Instrumentation and Facilitation (CLIF) at the University of Kerala and the Sophisticated Test and Instrumentation Centre (STIC) at CUSAT for students from anywhere. The Indian Institute of Science is managing a national portal called I-STEM for the Union government linking researchers and resources,he said. Facilities and instruments of more than 2,000 institutions are listed on the portal. Any student can register on the portal and request to use any facility or send their samples to be tested, he said.

Though 715 students participated in the survey, erroneous and duplicate entries were screened out and feedback from 608 students was considered for the survey, said Dr Jasmine M Shah, a principal investigator of the study and Executive Council Member of the academy. These 608 students were from 186 schools and 144 colleges in Kerala and now pursuing higher education in 167 institutes in India and 122 institutes abroad, she said.

An overwhelming number of participants were female students (62%), which could be a reflection of the significantly higher female gross enrolment ratio in higher education in Kerala, according to the report. There were a few students who moved out because of moral policing or they were fed up with gender bias. Only eight students said they were affected by 'reverse caste discrimination',a term they used to describe the reservation given to students from socially oppressed communities.

Prof Nair said the report will be released on the National Science Day on February 28 and shared with the policymakers in the state and at the Centre to help improve the higher education system.