The Institute of worldwide Education (IIE) Open Doors 2015 report, which is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, looked at approximately 3,000 colleges and universities in the U.S.
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The number of global students at American colleges rose faster this year than it has in decades, as schools worked harder than ever to lure the lucrative students and their tuition dollars. But much of last year’s growth is credited to a surge in the number of students who came from India, drawn by strong research programs, experts say.
“That increase has been primarily at the graduate level, and we know that Indian students have always been very attracted to the availability of excellent science and research facilities on USA campuses”, said Rajika Bhandari, the nonprofit’s deputy vice president for research and evaluation.
“We’ve already been thinking about this a lot…and I would say that one of the things that we probably will change is more reporting to the embassies when our students are traveling as groups”, said University of Dubuque Director of worldwide Studies and Study overseas, Phyllis Garfield.
Last year, the University of Arizona shot above the University of IL Urbana-Champaign, UCLA, and Purdue to become the public university with the highest worldwide enrollment.
At the University of Southern California, the number of Indian students has gone from 1,300 to more than 2,000 since 2012.
At the moment – the University of Dubuque has students studying in other parts of Europe, like Ireland.
With a whopping 29.4 percent increase, a record high of 132,888 Indian students studying in the U.S. in 2014/15 academic year contributed $3.6 billion to the USA economy, according to a new report.
Particularly remarkable is the fast rate of growth in the undergraduate student population. “We really do need to double or even triple this rate of growth”.
The dramatic rise in the number of Chinese students in the United States has led in a few cases to concerns about the students’ ability to integrate into US campus and social life, which often centers on sports, social clubs, and community organizations that may be unfamiliar to Chinese students.
A statement from the mayor’s office said that while this would not be restricted to any one nation, “this would be attractive to Indian students for whom STEM degrees are popular”. India saw a five percent increase in students from the US.
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Top destinations for USA students are the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain.
