Studying abroad is worth ₹1 crore when the graduate will work in the destination country for at least two or three years after the degree, in a field that pays there, and the family can fund it from surplus and a loan the graduate will repay. It is not worth it when the graduate is coming straight home, when the field pays ₹8 to 15 lakh in India and not much more abroad, or when the money comes out of retirement. Those three conditions decide the answer more than the university's rank does.
The question is harder than a payback calculation because the number is rarely ₹1 crore. A four-year US private degree is ₹2.8 to 3.4 crore before aid at September 2026 rates; a three-year UK degree ₹1.35 to 2.1 crore; Singapore with the Tuition Grant ₹95 lakh to 1.6 crore. And the payback is not a function of the degree alone but of the work visa at the end of it, which has changed in four of the six major destinations since 2024. This article gives the cost by country in lakh and crore, the payback by field and by work rights, the loan and remittance rules of thumb, and the cases where the answer is no.
What a degree abroad actually costs, in crore
The annual figures are the 2026-27 all-in costs from our destination pages, converted at approximate September 2026 rates and multiplied by the standard degree length. The full breakdown, including the ₹8 to 15 lakh of costs the brochures leave out, is in the cost of studying abroad guide.
| Destination | Annual all-in cost | Degree length | Total for the degree | Post-study work rights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US, private university | ₹70 to 85 lakh | 4 years | ₹2.8 to 3.4 crore | OPT 12 months; 24 more for STEM degrees; then H-1B lottery |
| US, public flagship | ₹45 to 57 lakh | 4 years | ₹1.8 to 2.3 crore | Same |
| UK | ₹45 to 70 lakh | 3 years | ₹1.35 to 2.1 crore | Graduate visa: 2 years if applied for by 31 December 2026, 18 months from 1 January 2027 |
| Canada | ₹38 to 58 lakh | 4 years | ₹1.5 to 2.3 crore | PGWP up to 3 years for a bachelor's degree |
| Australia | ₹37 to 49 lakh | 3 years | ₹1.1 to 1.5 crore | Subclass 485: 2 years; 3 for Indian STEM or ICT honours graduates under ECTA |
| Singapore, with Tuition Grant | ₹24 to 40 lakh | 4 years | ₹95 lakh to 1.6 crore | Three-year work bond; employer-sponsored pass |
| Hong Kong | ₹25 to 40 lakh | 4 years | ₹1 to 1.6 crore | IANG: 24 months open work rights, no job offer needed |
| India, IIT or NIT | ₹2 to 3.5 lakh | 4 years | ₹8 to 14 lakh | Not applicable |
| India, Ashoka, Krea, Plaksha | ₹9 to 14 lakh | 4 years | ₹36 to 56 lakh | Not applicable |
Two things to add before reading it as a ranking. The US private figure falls by up to 90 percent for a family with income under about USD 100,000 (₹88 lakh) at the roughly fifty colleges that meet need for international students; for that family the need-blind colleges are cheaper than Canada. And the rupee has lost about 10 percent against the dollar since 2022; a further 3 to 4 percent a year is a reasonable planning assumption, which adds ₹10 to 20 lakh to a four-year US degree.
Payback depends on the work visa more than the university
Parents ask about ROI as if the degree were the asset. The asset is the degree plus the years of work at destination salaries that the visa allows, and the second part is where the money is recovered. The table below uses typical starting salaries for graduates of good universities in each country; they vary widely by city, employer and year, so treat them as orders of magnitude and check current figures for the specific field.
| Destination | Typical graduate starting pay | What the work visa allows | What a graduate can typically save in the visa window | Share of a mid-range degree cost recovered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | USD 65,000 to 110,000 (₹57 lakh to 97 lakh); computer science and engineering at the top | 1 year OPT, 3 for STEM; then a lottery for an H-1B | USD 25,000 to 45,000 a year after tax and rent; USD 75,000 to 135,000 over three STEM years (₹66 lakh to 1.2 crore) | 25 to 40 percent of a ₹3 crore private degree; 40 to 60 percent of a ₹2 crore public one |
| UK | GBP 28,000 to 42,000 (₹33 to 49 lakh); London finance and tech higher | 18 months on the Graduate visa from January 2027; a Skilled Worker visa needs a sponsoring employer and a salary above the current threshold | GBP 8,000 to 15,000 a year; GBP 12,000 to 22,000 over 18 months (₹14 to 26 lakh) | 10 to 15 percent of a ₹1.7 crore degree, unless sponsored beyond it |
| Canada | CAD 55,000 to 80,000 (₹35 to 51 lakh) | PGWP up to 3 years; Express Entry to permanent residence for many graduates | CAD 15,000 to 28,000 a year; CAD 45,000 to 85,000 over three years (₹29 to 54 lakh) | 20 to 30 percent of a ₹1.9 crore degree; the PR route is the real return |
| Australia | AUD 65,000 to 85,000 (₹37 to 48 lakh) | 485 visa 2 years, 3 for Indian STEM honours graduates | AUD 18,000 to 30,000 a year; AUD 36,000 to 90,000 over the visa (₹20 to 51 lakh) | 20 to 40 percent of a ₹1.3 crore degree |
| Singapore | SGD 45,000 to 70,000 (₹31 to 48 lakh) | Three-year bond guarantees the intent to work; the employer sponsors the pass | SGD 15,000 to 28,000 a year; SGD 45,000 to 85,000 over the bond (₹31 to 58 lakh) | 30 to 50 percent of a ₹1.25 crore degree |
| Hong Kong | HKD 240,000 to 360,000 (₹27 to 41 lakh) | IANG 24 months, extendable once employed | HKD 60,000 to 120,000 a year; HKD 120,000 to 240,000 over two years (₹14 to 27 lakh) | 10 to 20 percent in the first two years; more if extended |
| Return to India at once | ₹6 to 15 lakh for most fields; ₹15 to 30 lakh for top-tier tech and consulting | Not applicable | ₹2 to 8 lakh a year | ₹1 crore typically takes 15 years or more to recover; ₹3 crore may never be |
The lesson of the table is that the destinations Indian families rank highest are not the ones with the fastest payback. A three-year Australian STEM degree with the ECTA year, or a Singapore degree with the bond, recovers a larger share of its cost in the visa window than a US private degree does, because the cost is a third and the work window is comparable. The US pays off when the graduate converts OPT into an H-1B or a green card, which is a lottery, or when aid brought the price down in the first place. The UK's payback now depends on employer sponsorship within 18 months, which is why the UK destination page flags the January 2027 change.
Payback by field
The field moves the numbers more than the university within a destination.
Computer science, engineering, data and quantitative finance. The only fields where a full-price degree abroad reliably pays back on salary alone, because starting pay in the US, Canada and Singapore is at the top of the ranges above and the STEM visa extensions apply. A ₹2 crore public-university degree in these fields, followed by three years of work abroad, is a defensible purchase.
Economics, business and accounting. Middle of the range. Pays back well from a top-tier university with a London, New York or Singapore job at the end; pays back slowly from a mid-ranked one. The name of the university matters more here than in engineering.
Life sciences, pure sciences, mathematics. Low starting pay at the bachelor's level everywhere; the real return comes from a funded master's or PhD afterwards, which the foreign undergraduate degree makes easier to obtain. Treat the ₹1 to 2 crore as the price of access to funded graduate study, and ask whether an IISc, IIT or Ashoka degree opens the same door for a tenth of it. It often does.
Humanities, social sciences, design, media. Rarely recovers on salary in the visa window in any country; recovers on the life the graduate wants to lead, which is a legitimate reason to buy it but not an ROI. Fund it from surplus, not from a loan the student will carry into a ₹6 lakh job.
Medicine, law, architecture. Long, expensive and licensed by country; a UK or Australian medical degree is ₹3 to 4 crore over five or six years. These are decisions about where the child will practise, not about ROI.
Loans and LRS: rules of thumb, not advice
Most families funding ₹1 crore or more borrow part of it. The mechanics are in the cost guide; these are the rules of thumb I give parents, and none of them is advice about a particular product.
Borrow no more than the graduate's expected first-year gross salary in the country where they will work. A ₹1 crore loan is serviceable on a USD 90,000 starting salary in the US and on a CAD 70,000 one in Canada; it is not serviceable on ₹12 lakh in India. If the child may come home at once, cap the loan at about ₹30 to 40 lakh.
Understand what ₹1 crore becomes. Interest accrues during the course, so a ₹1 crore loan drawn over four years at 10 to 11 percent is typically ₹1.35 to 1.45 crore at the first EMI. Repaid over ten years, that is an EMI of roughly ₹1.8 to 1.9 lakh a month, or about ₹22 lakh a year. Interest is deductible without limit under Section 80E for up to eight years, which at a 30 percent marginal rate cuts an 11 percent loan to about 7.7 percent, provided the payer has the income to absorb the deduction.
Use the remittance rules. Under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme each resident individual can send up to USD 250,000 (about ₹2.2 crore) per financial year, so two parents can together send USD 500,000, which covers any degree. From 1 April 2026 remittances for education carry no tax collected at source up to ₹10 lakh in a financial year and typically 2 percent on the amount above that from the family's own funds; where the fees come from an education loan from a specified financial institution the TCS is nil. TCS is a credit against income tax recovered at filing, so it is a cash-flow item, not a cost. Confirm the current rate with the remitting bank, because it has changed in three of the last four budgets.
The retirement-fund caution
The commonest mistake I see at the ₹1 crore level is not a bad university; it is the funding plan. Drawing down a provident fund, a pension corpus or the equity in the family home to avoid a loan looks prudent because it avoids interest. It is not, for one reason: the child has forty working years in which to repay a loan, and the parents have ten or fifteen in which to rebuild a retirement.
Fund the degree from three sources in this order: surplus income during the four years, savings set aside for education, and a loan the graduate will service. If those three cannot cover it without touching retirement money or the home, the degree is too expensive for the family, and the right response is a cheaper destination, the need-based aid route in the US, or India. A ₹1 crore corpus left invested at 8 percent for twenty years is roughly ₹4.7 crore at retirement; that is the real price of spending it at 50.
When the answer is no, and what to do instead
The answer is no in four recognisable situations.
The graduate is coming straight home. The salary premium for a foreign undergraduate degree in India is modest, so the ₹1 to 3 crore is largely unrecovered. An IIT, BITS, Ashoka or Plaksha degree, and a funded master's abroad later if wanted, gets to the same place for a fifth of the money; the Ashoka, Krea and Plaksha comparison sets it out.
The field pays the same everywhere. A ₹2 crore degree in a field whose graduates earn ₹6 to 10 lakh in India and the equivalent of ₹30 lakh abroad, with no visa route to stay, does not pay back. Fund it only from surplus, knowing that.
The money is retirement money. This is a no regardless of the university.
The offer is a mid-ranked full-price US or UK university when the student could get into NUS, NTU, HKU or an IIT. Singapore and Hong Kong give a top-100 degree, three hours from home, for ₹1 to 1.6 crore, with a defined work route at the end; the Singapore page explains the Tuition Grant and its bond. For a student with 93 percent or more in the boards, these are often the better purchase than a US public flagship at ₹2 crore.
The answer is yes, without much argument, in two situations: a computer science or engineering degree at a good university with a clear intent to work abroad for three years, funded by surplus and a loan the graduate will carry; or a need-based aid offer from a US college that brings the four-year cost below ₹50 lakh, which for the family that qualifies makes the US the cheapest destination in the table.
What to do this month, if your child is in Class 11
Write down three numbers with your child in the room: what the family can pay per year from income without borrowing, the loan the family is comfortable with under the rules above, and whether household income is under about ₹88 lakh, which opens the need-based route. Then run one calculation per destination, using the two tables, for the field your child is likely to study. Most families find the list should be built around two destinations rather than five, and that one of them is cheaper than they assumed. Building the list around the family's number and the work-visa outcome, rather than around rankings, is where college admissions counselling at Plinth starts, and the method page describes how the destination decision is made before the university one. The deadlines resource shows how early each destination's aid deadlines fall.
Where these numbers stop applying
The costs are 2026-27 figures checked in September 2026 and the visa rules are those in force or announced at that date; US OPT and the H-1B fee are both subject to proposed rules and litigation in 2026, the UK Graduate visa changes in January 2027, and Canada's permit caps and Australia's visa fees have moved each year, so confirm every rule on the official page before deciding. Starting salaries are typical ranges for graduates of good universities and vary by more than shown; check current figures for the field and city. Nothing here is financial advice; the loan and remittance points are general rules a chartered accountant should check against your family's position. Families with foreign-currency income, a second passport or residency abroad face a different calculation altogether.