Enrolment rate of Indians studying in USA falls
Basant Kumar Mohanty

There has been a decline in the gross enrolment of Indians pursuing higher education in the US, but the country continues to be the leading place of origin for international students in America. Open Doors 2006, an annual report on international academic mobility published by the Institute of International Education with support from the USA Department of State's Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, states the number of Indian students decreased by five per cent in 2005-06 over the previous year.

While there were 80,466 Indian students in the US in 2004-05, the number fell to 76,503 in the 2005-06 academic session.

However, Indians constitute 13 per cent of international students in the US, the highest segment of students from any country, followed by China (62,582), Korea (58,847), Japan (38,712), Canada (28,202) and Taiwan (27,876).

The total number of international students in the USA in 2005-06 stood at 5,64,766, while the number was 5,65,039 the previous year.

The US Education Foundation in India (USEFI), however, said there was no decline in fresh enrolment of Indian students in the USA.

"The decline of five per cent in the students' strength pertains to gross enrolment. It does not indicate that the flow of Indian students for 2005-06 academic year has declined. Rather, there has been 32 per cent increase in student visas issued to Indians," Vijaya Khandavilli, country coordinator of Education Advisory Services of USEFI, said recently.

The number provided by the survey indicates the first-time enrolment of students in the USA for that year has gone up, Khandavilli said.

"The decline refers to the total number of students who were enrolled in the last four to five years. It could be due to the fact that more

students might have passed out or any other factor," she said.

There was no cap on student visas for the USA, and America was encouraging Indian students to pursue education there, Khandavilli said.

She said the most favoured areas of study for Indian students in the USA were business, management, IT and engineering. Among American institutes, University of South California, Columbia University and Purdue University remained the most popular centres for Indians.

Similarly, there has been an increase in the mobility of American students to India, according to the Open Doors findings. There were 1,767 American students in India in 2004-05, up from 1,157 in 2003-04, it said.

American students were giving first priority to the UK for higher studies, followed by Italy, Spain, France and Australia.

About 2,05,983 students from the US were studying in foreign countries in 2004-05, it said. — PTI