When K moved from Kerala to Dubai last year to study engineering, it seemed like a sensible middle ground. The college was a branch campus of an Australian university and K had researched it well before applying. The course was similar, lecturers visited from the main campus and the final degree was going to carry the same accreditation as one from Australia. “It wasn’t Australia, but according to my parents, it was safer, closer home and culturally familiar,” he says over a phone call. “What’s not to like?”

K and his family are not alone. 

Increasingly, students and education consultants …