India is the second largest origin country of foreign students in the United States, with more than two lakh Indians studying in various American universities in 2017, the latest official report said on Friday.
China tops the list with 4,81,106 students, according to a report released by the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Of more than 1.5 million international students studying in various educational institutions in the U.S. in 2017, Indians accounted for over 2,49,763, the report said.
China and India collectively account for nearly half of the foreign students in America. They are followed by three other Asian countries – South Korea (95,701), Saudi Arabia (72,358) and Japan (41,862) – in the top five. Other countries in the top 10 are Vietnam, Canada, Taiwan, Mexico, and Brazil.
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However, India tops the list of students with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) OPT (Optional Practical Training) authorization. STEM OPT programme is a 24-month extension of OPT for qualifying students with STEM degrees.
Pre-completion OPT takes place prior to a student’s programme end date. Of the 89,839 STEM OPT foreign students in 2017, as many as 50,507 were from India, followed by China (21,705), South Korea (1,670), Taiwan (1,360), and Iran (1,161).
Notably, Indians do not choose to come to the U.S. for school studies, the report indicated.
China with 44,573 students tops the list of foreign students at the higher secondary level, followed by South Korea (6,842), Vietnam (6,017), Mexico (2,865) and Brazil (1,926)
-Sowmya Sangam
