Who remains to build a country if the brightest young people continue to leave? In Nepal, the issue is no longer a dramatic question—it is something you can see every day. From small towns to Kathmandu’s colleges, young people are preparing to go abroad, often as a first choice rather than a last resort.
Walk through any college in Kathmandu today, and you will hear the same conversations repeated in classrooms, cafeterias, and corridors: IELTS preparation, visa interviews, and university applications abroad. For many Nepalis, staying in the country is no longer the default choice. Leaving has quietly become the norm. This growing trend of migration, especially to countries like Australia, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and Japan, is often described as a “brain drain”. But behind this term were real human stories of ambition, frustration, hope, and sometimes silent disappointment in what the country had failed to offer.
One of the biggest reasons young people leave Nepal is the gap between education and employment. Students get degrees for years and then find out there are no jobs for them. Even when jobs are available, the pay is often too low for a decent quality of life. While Nepal has made progress in increasing access to education, issues such as an outdated curriculum, a lack of practical exposure, and delays in academic processes have been raised. On the other hand, foreign universities offer modern facilities, skills-based learning and clear paths.
Trust in the system is another issue. Political instability, corruption, and the feeling that connections matter more than merit have slowly built frustration among young people. When fairness feels uncertain, leaving starts to feel like a safer option.
At the same time, foreign countries actively encourage this movement. They advertise education, offer part-time jobs, provide post-study work visas, and provide pathways to residency. For a young Nepali, it feels like a clear ladder compared to the confusion at home.
The scale of this migration is reflected clearly in recent data. According to Nepal’s Ministry of Education, over 112,000 students received No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to study abroad in the fiscal year 2023/24 alone. In a broader context, nearly 900,000 Nepali left the country in a single year for study and work, and more than 2.5 million have migrated in the past three years, most of them aged between 20 and 35. On average, around 3,000 Nepali leave the country every day.
The impact is visible back home. Hospitals struggle to keep skilled staff, engineering talent is limited, and even schools lose potential teachers before they ever enter the system. It is about losing the energy that keeps systems running.
But migration is not only loss. For many families, remittances are what keep life going. Money sent from abroad pays for education, health care, food and housing. In many homes, someone working overseas is the main source of income. While Nepal loses people to emigration, it also relies on their contributions.
The answer to the problem of brain drain is not to keep people from leaving the country. People moving to countries is just a part of how the world works now. The real problem is to make Nepal a place where people want to stay, not a place where they have to leave to survive. The government needs to make sure its schools are good, create jobs that are worthwhile and make systems where people are recognised and rewarded for what they can do. Importantly, the government needs to make its young people trust the country again. In the end, the question is not whether Nepali youth will continue to go abroad. They will. The real question is this: Will Nepal ever become a place they are proud to return to?
