Fall in number of Indian students going to US: report

Updated on: Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Indian students opting for higher education in the United States dropped by one per cent compared to previous year, but still they represent 14 per cent of foreign students, according to the Open Doors report, which is published annually by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in partnership with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The report was released in Washington on Monday.

The report reveals that Indian students in US were 1,03,895 this year while the number was 1,04,897 in 2009-10. Interestingly, this is the first time that enrolment of Indian students in the US has seen decline since 1998-99. Despite the falling figures from India, the number of foreign students grew by 4.7 per cent due to the increase in the number of students from China. The report says that 7,23,277 international students had enrolled in US colleges and universities during this academic year compared to 6,90,923 in 2009-10. China, India and South Korea comprise 46 percent of the total international enrolments in U.S. higher education.

As expected, maximum students from India opted for engineering courses (36.9 per cent) followed by Maths and Computer Sciences stream (19.8 per cent). Other courses where Indian students showed interest included MBA (15.2 per cent), Physical and Life Sciences (11.4 per cent), Health Professionals (4.9 per cent) and Social Sciences (3 per cent). Among all the nations maximum number of International students in Engineering, Maths and Computer Sciences were from India.

For the tenth year in a row, the University of Southern California is the leading host institution, with 8,615 international students.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has second highest foreign students (7,991) followed by New York University (7,988). California, New York, Texas, Massachusetts and Illinois remained as the top five hosts for all international students. Among the top 10 host states, Massachusetts, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana all had increases that were higher than the national average of eight percent or greater.

The report also reveal that international students in the top 10 host states bring revenue ranging from several million to nearly three billion dollars to their host states. With regard to funding, it finds out that 63 percent of all international students receive the majority of their funds from personal and family sources. Almost 70 percent of all international students' primary funding, including tuition fee, comes from sources outside the United States.

Fall in number of Indian students going to US: report

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