Indians coming to the United States on a student visa have increased by around 25 percent this year, according to a report published by the Institute of International Education. One in every six international students in the US is an Indian, stated the Open Doors report published in partnership with the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
A total of 165,918 Indians have enrolled for different courses in the academic year 2015-16. In these, 61.4 percent are pursuing graduate and 11.6 percent are for undergraduate courses.
“The total number of Indian students on US campuses grew by 24.9 percent to 165,918 in 2015-16 from 132,888 in 2014-15,” according to the Open Doors survey.
“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,” said US Ambassador Richard Verma in a statement.
“With efforts such as our Passport to India initiative, we are also seeing the number of American students in India beginning to grow,” added Verma.
“A considerable number of students going to the US are from families that have spent some time in the US. Wards of professionals who have worked in the US for a few years have been exposed to international standards and they want to study in colleges at par with those standards,” said Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO and MD of Headhunters, a Human Resource Consultancy Firm.
“The growing number of private high schools with international curriculums are preparing students to pursue undergraduate degrees abroad, specifically in the US,” said Ryan Pereira, Mumbai Regional Officer, United States-India Educational Foundation (USIEF).
”The increase to the US has been at the expense of the UK, and other countries – the US is viewed as the more friendly country to international students, with policies designed to attract and provide opportunities for education as well as practical work,” he added.
“With over 4,500 accredited higher education institutions in the United States, ranging from community colleges to PhD programs, there will always be room for you,” said Mumbai’s Consular Chief Michael Evans.
“The OPT extension gives us unparalleled opportunities to work in the United States. I have a great internship with Cargill Bioengineering. This will help me to pick up the tab for a lot of my education costs,” said Rajesh Singhal, who is studying at the Nancy E and Peter C Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, in Cornell University, at Ithaca.
Pranitha Reddy from Hyderabad, who is applying for a Masters degree in Economics said: “After the elections, I have started exploring colleges in the European nations as I am a little scared. However, I haven’t entirely ruled out the US.”
By Premji
