At a time when there is a huge flight of capital from the country in the form of education bills for the study abroad of Nepali students, Nepal is also earning foreign currency from international students who're coming to study in the Himalayan nation. The latest macroeconomic report published by the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) shows there has been a huge growth in foreign currency income through foreign students coming to Nepal in this fiscal year. The central bank data shows the country earned Rs 1.52 billion in the first half of FY 2022/23 from foreign students, an increment of a whopping 102 percent from Rs 754.2 million in the same period of the last fiscal year. Nepal earned Rs 1.51 billion from foreign students studying in the country in FY 2021/22. According to NRB, such earning was Rs 1.04 billion in FY 2020/21 and Rs 2.23 billion in FY 2019/20.

The forex earnings from education declined in the last two fiscal years due to the Covid-19 pandemic as foreign students could not come to Nepal. However, with the easing of international travel, there has been a surge in the number of foreign students studying in the country lately.

Apart from subjects such as history and language, the majority of foreign students come to Nepal for medical education. According to the Medical Education Commission, 265 foreign students were enrolled in medical colleges in the last fiscal year. According to the commission, students from Bhutan, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, and other countries come to Nepal for medical education. Currently, about 500 foreign students are studying at different medical colleges in Nepal. Similarly, foreigners also come to study language, history, law, and other subjects. However, government entities do not have integrated data on the number of foreign students studying in Nepal. When foreign students study in Nepal, a large amount of money is spent on educational fees, housing expenses, etc. Education experts say that if the standard of the country's education system is improved, Nepal can attract more foreign students as well as earn more foreign currency. While there has been growth in the foreign exchange earnings from international students coming to Nepal, the country is spending a much higher amount to pay the bills of Nepali students who're studying abroad. As more Nepalis have been going abroad to study in recent years, more money is going outside the country for the purpose. The NRB report shows Nepalis have spent Rs 35.35 billion in the first six months of the current fiscal year for foreign education. Such spending amounted to Rs 67.70 billion for education abroad in the last fiscal year 2021/22 which had surged due to the suppressed number of outgoing Nepali students in the previous two fiscal years due to Covid-related restrictions. In FY 2020/21 and FY 2019/20, spending for education decreased to Rs 24.95 billion and Rs 25.81 billion, according to NRB.