Indian students show highest growth on US campuses: report

The increase of 14.1 per cent of Indian students in United States’ campuses over the last one year reflects the growing craze for U.S. education among Indians. In the same period, Chinese students grew by 5.2 per cent and Vietnamese students by 4.5 per cent.

The quarterly report of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released in November reveals that 2,06,582 Indian students are currently studying in the U.S., while the Chinese are way ahead with 3,78,986 students.

Asia takes the cake with 87 per cent of its students pursuing various courses in the U.S. — an increase of 11 per cent. Interestingly, there was a huge decline of students from other Asian nations like Saudi Arabia, which saw a decline of 19.9 per cent and South Korea by 8.3 per cent.

The computer science programme has seen an increase of 17.3 per cent over the last year, though core engineering branches continue to attract major numbers despite a growth of just 5.9 per cent. The report says 2,02,547 Asian students are pursuing engineering, while 1,42,561 students are studying computer science. Only 40,344 Asians have enrolled into the biological sciences streams.

A majority of Indian students continue to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programmes. California attracts the maximum STEM students, with Indians making 27,495 students of the 77,198 international students, followed by China. Texas, which takes the second spot, also has the highest number of Indian students pursuing STEM programmes, with 22,284 enrolled out of 47,062 international students.

New York bags third spot with 46,131 students. In this case, however, Chinese students form the largest group with 18,589, followed by India with 14,360 students.

Nishi Borra of Atlas Education Consultancy said Indians continue to dominate the STEM courses as those who prefer higher education in the U.S. are from engineering backgrounds.

Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) is the web-based system that Department of Homeland Security uses to maintain information on SEVP-certified schools and students who come to the United States. SEVIS also maintains information on Department of State-designated exchange visitor programme sponsors and J-1 visa visitor exchange programme participants.