China and India once again lead the American charts on enrolment of foreign students, with an exceptionally dramatic surge in the number of Chinese students over the past couple of years. But Indian students top the table in the high-value ‘STEM’ stream, comprising science, technology, engineering and mathematics courses.
The 2014 “Open Doors” report on enrolment of foreign students, released by the Washington-based Institute of International Education on Monday, points to an 8 per cent growth, taking the number of international students in American universities to a record high of 886,052 students in the 2013-14 academic year.
China tops the chart with 274,439 students (31 per cent), followed by India with 102,673 (11.6 per cent).
Since 2000, there are five times more Chinese students and two-and-a-half times more Indian students on American campuses, says the IIE report.
Another report, released last week by the US Government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Programme (SEVP), highlights the Indian dominance in STEM courses. Indian students account for over 26 per cent of the STEM student population in the United States.
The SEVP report, which includes latest data up to October 2014, has come out with different overall numbers. It puts the number of Chinese students at 329,927 and Indian students at 134,292.
“Since October 2013, the number of students studying in the United States from India increased 28 per cent,” it says.
The IIE report, produced in partnership with the State Department, said the 6.1 per cent increase in the number of Indian students during 2013-14 reverses a three-year declining trend.
Beginning 2000, the overall number of international students in the United States has grown by 72 per cent.
Even so, it constitutes just over four per cent of the total US graduate and undergraduate enrolments combined.
International students are a big source of revenue to the US economy, contributing as much as $27 billion in 2013, the report said, citing figures from the US Department of Commerce.
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