A Journey of Educational Migration
In early April 1984, a letter arrived at my home in Thamel, Kathmandu, via the regular postal service. This letter was highly anticipated because it was the time when responses from American colleges were typically received. I had applied to several universities in late 1983. Upon opening the envelope, it became clear that there was exciting news for me. Brandeis University, located in Waltham (11 miles west of Boston), had admitted me into its undergraduate degree program and offered a Wien International Scholarship to cover tuition, room, board, and health insurance.
The Wien Scholarship, which I later learned was established in 1958 by Lawrence and Mae Wien, aimed to bring undergraduate students from around the world to Brandeis for a mutually beneficial education. My parents had attended college in Nepal, and my maternal grandfather had trained as an Ayurvedic physician in India. Several of my parents' first cousins had studied abroad in India, Pakistan, and the former Soviet Union as engineers and medical doctors. In the mid-1970s, a second cousin of mine had gone to the US for a PhD in physics. I was following in their footsteps, as were many generations of Nepalis who had previously left for education, primarily to India before 1951, and increasingly to other countries.
Over the past 40 years, the destinations for Nepali educational migrants have become more varied, and the number of such migrants has increased significantly across all social strata. However, it is important to recognize that educational migration is not a new phenomenon. It will continue regardless of how many good universities are established in Nepal. The idea that it was once beneficial when only the elite sent their children abroad and now becomes a crisis when non-elites do the same is flawed.
Financial Challenges and Support
Although Brandeis was generous in covering all my expenses upon arrival, the offer did not include the one-way ticket from Kathmandu to Boston, which cost about $700 at the time. With an exchange rate of approximately Rs16.80 per dollar, this amounted to just under Rs12,000. Unfortunately, my family did not have the cash to buy it. There were no family savings, and among non-royals, only those who had liquidated old wealth in the form of land or properties and some businessmen had significant cash then.
Desperate, my father reached out to several American friends for help. One of them, who had worked with my father in the early 1970s in Nepal, generously agreed to purchase my ticket. More than 40 years later, thousands of Nepali students are going to various colleges and universities in South Asia, East Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. Some receive full financial aid from institutions or scholarship-providing entities, while others pay large amounts from family savings, even if they have received some scholarships. Many pay full education costs using family savings or take loans from relatives and friends.
Student migrants in these latter two categories run into tens of thousands each year. This indicates that over the past four decades, the number of Nepali families capable of sending their children to universities outside Nepal has substantially increased. These costs are not nominal, with many families paying anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 per year for their child's education in the US. Similar costs apply in the UK, Japan, and Australia. Compared to 1984, many Nepali families now have either savings or access to cash through formal or informal loans to cover their children's education abroad.
Families sending their children abroad are not limited to the wealthy. I know a single mother who raised her two daughters while working as a wage laborer in Kathmandu. Her older daughter left for Australia in 2019 to train as a nurse, and the younger daughter followed soon after to complete her BA. In both cases, their mother took out huge loans from well-wishers, most of which have already been repaid.
Expansion of Educational Opportunities
In 1984, the few Nepalis who went to US colleges as freshmen were graduates of a few good schools in Kathmandu, such as St Xavier’s and St. Mary’s. They had done well in their schools and had strong TOEFL and SAT scores. For most graduates from other schools in the country at the time, participating in the application process was challenging due to limited information and inadequate English proficiency.
Today, the number of students going to various English-speaking countries suggests that the ability to produce such graduates has spread to hundreds of schools across the country. With the internet, many of these students are well-informed about the application process by the time they reach high school. This increase in the number of schools producing graduates with good English skills is an important point to consider in public discussions about educational migration.
Conclusion
While educational migration is not without its flaws—inequalities of access persist and exploitation exists within the student recruitment infrastructure—it is not a story of complete despair. It reflects the growing financial resources accessible to even working-class members of society, something unimaginable for my middle-class family in 1984. Recognizing these realities is essential in shaping a balanced discourse on educational migration in contemporary Nepal.