The recent deaths of Nepali students abroad bring to light a bitter truth: families back home are sending their young ones overseas, often in haste and, maybe without the support systems that they may need while pursuing their academic dreams and "golden future". Away from home, the youngsters suddenly find themselves left to fend for themselves in foreign lands. They go through discrimination and depression. In August 2024, 21-year-old Muna Pandey was shot dead in her Houston apartment. In February 2025, Prakriti Lamsal, a student in India, died by suicide apparently after enduring prolonged abuse. About two months later, 20-year-old Sushan Oli was found dead near the Thames in London. And just days ago, 18-year-old Prisha Sah was found dead under suspicious circumstances at the same Indian university where Lamsal had taken her life.
These students went too soon, leaving behind them the tales of vulnerability our youth face abroad. Their testimonies speak volumes. “America in my mind was completely different from the America I found in reality,” according to a student from Caldwell University, USA. He felt isolated and went through financial hardship, like many. The situation appears just as bad, close home in India – like one engineering student recounted. According to him, the Nepali students are looked down, dismissed and harassed. The sad truth is that the situation is more or less the same elsewhere too. The students find themselves in loneliness and in hostile environments. Financial constraints aggravate their situation while living in another country, especially for the students who do not come from rich families. While sending the children abroad for higher studies, it appears, the parents are pretty much oblivious about the psychological and social quagmire the young ones are tossed into. The pressure to study abroad is often glorified in Nepal. For the majority of students, staying back and studying in Nepal is tantamount to failure – to go by the testimonies of one student who returned from the UK in the face of tremendous mental and financial stress. According to him, he saved his life by returning home and was subject to societal scrutiny of sorts. Kids studying abroad are also seen as a benchmark of success – wrongly. Even worse is the general tendency to shame those who return home.
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The state cannot put a blanket ban on students willing to go abroad for higher studies but there are a few things that the state and the families can do together. The government can take the necessary steps to ensure that Nepali students have access to psychological support while abroad. Nepal has its embassies or consulates in many countries. These outposts should make continuous efforts to reach out to Nepali students and maintain regular contact with them and provide emergency support, including the counseling services. The sad reality is that the Nepali embassies and consulates are located poles apart psychologically, and students and the Nepali community – except for those in positions of power – usually have no or only limited access. This must change.
The trends of students going abroad right after their Class XII may be checked if our academic institutes and universities are to raise the quality of education. Should students be convinced that they get better educational and learning deals at home they will definitely think twice before seeking study opportunities. Families must also work to not shame students staying and studying home. Education in a foreign country should be a well-thought out option, and under no circumstances, a status symbol. Many Nepali students leave home and families for the first time and are rather unprepared to cope with the reality as an alien in an alien land.
