Indians formed the second largest group of international students in the United States in the year 2016-17, according to a recent report. Indian and Chinese students together make up 50 per cent of international students in the country.
Indian students spent $6.54 billion in the United States in 2016-17, an increase of 30 per cent from the previous year, according to the annual Open Doors report released by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs on Nov. 13. Together, international students generated $39 billion for the United States economy in 2016, the report led by Rajika Bhandari, the IIE policy and practice head of research, showed.
“International student exchange is an essential contributor to America’s economic competitiveness and national security,” Alyson L. Grunder, the deputy assistant secretary of state for policy in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, said. “The U.S. higher education sector remains the global leader in welcoming students from around the world, and at the same time, we are committed to increasing opportunities to study abroad for Americans.”
Number of international students in the United States.
Even though there are more students in the country, the enrollment numbers plateaued as international students stay longer as part of the Optional Practical Training program, Bhandari said.
The number of Indian students increased by 12 per cent, but the growth rate is less than the earlier rate of above 20 per cent. As many as 186,267 Indians students studied in the United States for the 2016-2017 year. In 2015-16, the corresponding figure was 165,918.
Among Indians, 11.8 per cent were undergraduate students, 56.3 per cent were graduate students, 1.2 per cent belonged to other courses, and 30.7 per cent were pursuing Optional Practical Training.
The top three areas of study were engineering, business management, and math and computer science.