“For many prospective students it was very important to hear the firsthand experiences of other students in Germany”

Could you first briefly explain what prompted your investigation and the specific research question?

My research aims to understand the reasons behind the sharp increase in the number of Indians studying in Germany. In the course of preparing for the project, I came across a number of mutual-support Facebook and WhatsApp groups, which were being used by prospective international students in India interested in studying in Germany, as well as a YouTube channel about study in Germany run by an Indian Master’s student at TU Hamburg. I was fascinated by how large numbers of prospective international students in India were using such spaces to get information about study in Germany, and to see the new sources of study-abroad expertise emerging in these spaces. It became very clear to me that to understand student mobility from India to Germany, it was crucial to explore these new developments.

What are the central findings of your study?

One of my main findings is that for prospective international students in India, social media is now a key source of information and guidance on study in Germany. There are a large number of vibrant and lively ‘Study in Germany’ Facebook and WhatsApp groups, which have become key co-working and co-learning spaces for prospective international students across India. Through these groups, they connect with each other and support each other with the process of deciding which universities and courses to apply to, preparing university and visa applications, and organising travel.

After spending a lot of time in these groups as part of a digital ethnography I was conducting, I noticed another very striking phenomenon: these groups have also given rise to a new form of education consultancy. Some Indian students in Germany were drawing on their firsthand experiences and insider knowledge of study in Germany to offer other group members personalised support, for a fee. They discreetly recruited clients through the groups and privately communicated with them over WhatsApp and email. The most prolific of them had 150 clients from all over India each semester, and had substantial influence over which German universities his clients applied to. In some cases, these student consultants have played a big role in popularising lesser-known universities of applied sciences and supporting students who may have been discouraged from applying to Germany by ‘traditional’ education consultants in India.

There are also a handful of ‘Study in Germany’ YouTube channels, run by Indian students in Germany, which offer prospective international students in India a chance to hear the perspectives and experiences of Indians currently studying in Germany and even visit German universities, student accommodation, supermarkets and so on virtually through their cameras. Some of these YouTubers are seen as celebrities within the prospective student community – the most popular has hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and his videos have been viewed millions of times. In my paper, I analyse the significance of these YouTubers and discuss how they can be considered Study-Abroad influencers. They play a big role in creating awareness about Germany as a study destination among Indians, and the content they produce has a lot of impact on their viewers’ study-abroad plans and strategies.

What conclusions do you draw from the findings for higher education practice?

Most of the students I interviewed in Germany and the prospective international students I met in the social media groups experienced the process of organising to go abroad for study as being complicated and stressful. Although a large amount of very useful information is now available in English through university websites and the website of the DAAD, for many prospective students it was very important to hear the firsthand experiences of other Indian students in Germany – how are they finding their specific Master’s programmes, universities, and internships; how are they finding life in Germany, how easy or difficult is it to get good jobs after graduation?

A second point I’d like to make is that Germany has come to be seen by Indians mainly as a destination to study engineering. A majority of the Indians studying in Germany are enrolled on engineering programmes. The student communities on social media are also dominated by engineering students, and much of the information available in these spaces is about engineering courses in Germany and life and work in Germany for engineers. People interested in studying other subjects find it harder to access firsthand experiences relating to the courses in which they are interested and the job prospects attached to these courses. This could potentially disincentivise people in other fields from study in Germany.

If universities are seeking to attract a greater number of Indian students from a wider range of disciplinary backgrounds, a good strategy might be to showcase the experiences of current students and recent graduates from different fields through video interviews, live Q&A sessions, and vlog-style videos.