The surge of Indian students flocking American universities continues unabated, with the latest numbers from the US Government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) pointing to a 9 per cent growth of Indian students over the past year. In absolute terms, however, the number of Indian students, at 14,6336 students as of February 2015, is second only to Chinese students (33,1371).
As much as 80 per cent of the Indian student flow is in pursuit of studies in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) courses. In contrast, a smaller proportion (38%) of Chinese students join STEM, with the majority pursuing other courses. Overall, the number of international students enrolled with American universities, using an F (academic) or M (vocational) visa, has gone up to 1.13 million, marking a 14.18% increase since January 2014, says the just-released SEVIS review. Of these, nearly one-third are in the STEM stream. “Ninety-nine per cent of all active F&M students in computer and information sciences and support services are from Asian nations,” says the report.