Over 60 per cent of Indian students who have access to the Internet use Google as their first source of research information related to educational courses and institutes, placing India at Rank 2 globally for education-related search queries.
The results were revealed through a survey titled “Students on the Web,” which was compiled by Google India. A Google release said, “With over half of the Indian Internet population in the age bracket of 18-35, India has raced to the number two spot globally when it comes to absolute volume of search queries related to education on Google Search.”
According to the survey, vocational courses were the most searched accounting for 44 per cent, followed by engineering with 40 per cent and postgraduate courses — mainly MBA courses — at 16 per cent. Over 40 per cent of the education-related searches were directed towards higher education courses and institutes.
Rajan Anandan, vice-president and managing director, Google India, said: “With over 60 million Internet-user population in India being in the 18-35 age group, education-related search queries are exploding on Google.” He said that the main objective of compiling the data was to understand the role that the Internet was having on decision-making by students. With the popularity of mobile phones increasing, it is not surprising that the mobile searches have increased by 135 per cent year after year.
An offline research was also conducted by TNS Australia to quiz students on the criteria they use for researching and selecting courses. Close to 56 per cent of the students said placements were the most important criterion. Faculty, course content, reputation of the institute and fees were the other important factors.
During the survey, students expressed their desire to have more mobile-friendly websites, and close to 46 per cent of the students said they would prefer watching videos which would help them make their decision.
Most students prefer watching videos about the career options, placements, videos of faculty and videos of classroom sessions which would aid them in their decision-making process.
Most of the report was complied after combining the search internal tool results and an offline research.
The majority of the respondents were in the 18 - 24 age group, and 24 per cent of the respondents were between the age group of 25 and 29 years. Only nine per cent of the students were in the 30 - 35 age group. The study was done seven cities: New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The most searched institutes in India during January - June 2012 were IIM Ahmedabad, followed by IIM Bangalore, IIM Indore, IIM Calcutta and IIM Kozhikode.
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