Unscrambling the preference puzzle: an in-depth exploration of why Indian international students shy away from home institutions for Master’s programs

Purpose In 2021, more than half a million Indian students traveled abroad to pursue Master’s programs. Against this background, we explore why Indian students do not enroll in Master’s programs in Indian higher education (IHE) institutions. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured, in-depth online interviews of 30 Indian international students pursuing post-graduation studies in four major host countries were conducted to elicit the required information. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed using a thematic approach. The attribution theory was used as a theoretical lens to discuss the findings. Findings The results indicate that the primary reasons for students not choosing Indian institutions are wide-ranging. The need to study abroad, decision influencers and why they did not consider IHE institutes were three significant categories encompassing nine themes. The study revealed that besides other factors, the rigor of admission in premier Indian universities is much higher when compared with other international universities. Also, the perceived rate of return in investing in those developed countries' universities is better when compared with those of premier Indian universities. Practical implications The insights will act as marketing intelligence for supporting the business and university administrators of Indian universities in formulating effective tactics to admit more students from this in-demand Indian subgroup. Originality/value Most of the existing research papers discuss the motivation and challenges of Indian international students for studying abroad, There is negligible research on their demotivation to join IHE institutions. The present study tries to focus on the aspects that most of them considered but did not join IHE. Also, the attribution theory is a new perspective for understanding their behavior in selecting higher education institutions.