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. But there is no integrated data on the number of foreign students studying in Nepal. As per the Medical Education Commission rule, 8.25 percent of seats in public medical colleges, 33 percent of seats in private medical colleges, and 50 percent of seats in private medical colleges run by foreign management have been allotted for foreign students. 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 43.74bn in the first seven months of the current fiscal year for foreign education. Such spending amounted to Rs 67.70bn 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 24.95bn and Rs 25.81bn, according to NRB.
