City students heading to the United States for higher education prefer colleges and universities that do not focus on research activity compared to the students in other parts of the country who join the top institutes.
A study by the Brookings Institution, an American think tank, revealed that during 2008-12, students from Hyderabad chose to study in small institutions that are lesser-known, with no research activity and involved in abusing F-1 visas (student visas). These institutions include International Technological University, University of Northern Virginia, Stratford University, Tri-Valley University and Herguan University.
The report said that some of these colleges were closed down by the Department of Homeland Security as they abused the F-1 visa system and the Curricular Practical Training (CPT) programme to bring students to work for employers than to study.
Interestingly, Hyderabad sends the highest number of students (26,220) from India to the United States and figures in the fourth place among the top five cities in the world sending students to the US. Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai and Riyadh are the others. The other Indian cities like Mumbai with 17,294 students is in sixth place, Chennai (9,141 students) in 12 place, Bangalore (8,835) in 14 place and Delhi (8,725) in 15 place.
The study reveals that the city has sent the largest number of students (20,800) from Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programme to the United States during 2008-12. While 91 per cent of students from the city opted for a master’s degree, only four per cent chose to study bachelor’s degree. Computer and Information Sciences (9,100 students) and Engineering (8,800) were the top two degrees preferred by the city students.
Hyderabad is classified as low income city with the GDP per capita at or below US $ 5,000 and in fact three of the top 20 source cities are low income cities, says the report further adding that these cities are likely to experience rapid economic growth in the coming decade. The city students have spent US $ 645,598,871, including $ 373,163,268 for tuition fee and the remaining $ 272,435,603 for living.
