Many Indian students are cancelling their plans of pursuing higher education in China amid rising border tensions between India and China. Students are now looking at alternative opportunities in the Middle East, Africa or other countries in Asia, while some will wait for the tensions to die down before coming to a decision, reports The Economic Times.

According to the report, around 23,000 Indian students were studying in China before the COVID-19 outbreak. Most students were pursuing medicine or management degrees. Indians are the fourth-largest group of foreign students in China. The COVID-19 outbreak had already delayed plans of many Indian students wanting to study in China.

Students have already started to cancel their plans, or are considering the option, according to education startups Collegedekho, Collegify, ADMITAS and Yocket. These startups help students find colleges outside India.

Some students have also cited Hong Kong protests of last year as another reason for cancelling plans, especially those who had been admitted to institutes in Hong Kong.

According to the same report, there were 492,185 international students from 196 countries pursuing higher education in China in the year 2018.

Meanwhile, on June 15, as many as 20 Indian soldiers were killed and 76 others got injured after a violent clash with the Chinese troops in the Galwan valley in Ladakh on June 15-16. At least 10 more Indian soldiers were taken as captives by the Chinese military, though they were released three days later.