Despite the alleged reports of Xenophobia, United States continues to be the most popular destinations when it comes to attaining higher education with the number of international students crossing 1 million/10 lakh in 2015-16. And adding to it, India forms the second biggest chunk of foreign students.
According to a report by Open Doors, Institute of International Education, the rate of growth of Indian students in the year 2015-2016 for the third straight year is almost 25 percent.
Here are the key findings of the report:
- The 1,65,918 Indian students make up 16 percent of the total number of international students in the US
- Students from China and India are the leading countries which send its students to US. The two together account for 84 percent of the growth in international students in 2015-16.
- Chinese students mostly take up undergraduate courses focused on business, while Indians opt for short graduate programs in more technical subjects like science and math.
- 36 percent of the Indian students study engineering followed by 34.9 percent for math or computer science.
- In 2014, Indian students contributed $ 5 billion for the US economy.
“Higher education continues to be the bedrock of our people to people ties. More students from India studied in the United States than ever before – at all levels – and I am especially pleased to see the record back-to-back, year-on-year growth in student numbers,” US Ambassador Richard Verma was quoted as saying in the statement.
“With efforts such as our Passport to India initiative, we are also seeing the number of American students in India beginning to grow,” he added.
(With PTI inputs)