Study Overseas | Latest News

Indian Students Numbers Rising for Studying Abroad

Racial intolerance and xenophobia is still in the air, a principle that seems to have reached its peak with the election of a racially biased US President-elect. However, Trump's victory hasn't put a damper on the number of students moving to the Unites States. The quantity of overseas students in the United States has crossed the one-million mark this year. If that number sounds high to you, it should. A hike of 7% was recorded in the number of enrollments when compared to the previous year. The interesting point to note is that one out every six students in the US is an Indian, a fact that showcases how Indian students are still flocking to the good ol US of A. The figures of Indian students enrolled in US universities this year are unsurprisingly among the top 25 sources of origin for students in the US. A massive growth rate of 25% was noticed in the number of Indian students in the US in the current year 2015-16, which equates to 1.7 lakhs students that are presently pursuing their higher education in the US. This large Indian delegation constitutes 16% of the total international student population in the country.

The table below presents the breakdown for the year 2015-16. It reflects that the majority of the Indian Students Study in the US at the graduate levels. A phenomenal contribution has been made by Indian students in the US economy by investing $5 billion in 2015-2016. It implies that the international education industry is important to the US economy, and since Trump is an astute businessman, it is doubtful that he would frame laws against the international education system.

[Read More: Study In USA Costs To Be Lowered By Us Government]

Breakdown for 2015-16

Under-graduate	Graduate	Optional Practical Training (OPT)	Others
11.6%	61.4%	25.5%	1.5%

 

 

 

While India contributed 16% of the total overseas students in the US, China remained at the top with 31.5% share in the total international enrollments in the US in 2015-16. As per the recent reports of Open Doors 2016, most of the funding received by 75% of the International students are from the sources outside the US that is either from family, loans or assistance from the domestic country governments or universities. That means student don't actually depend on scholarships while making the decision to study in the US. The data suggests that the top three sources of international students in the US are China, India and Saudi-Arabia. These three countries together comprise about 53% of the total overseas students enrolled for pursuing education in the US, accounting for a total 10, 43,839 students.

This figure is the 5% of the total higher education student population in the America. This demographic is not only large in number of enrolments, but are also big in the amount of contributions they are making towards the US economy, which is approximately $36 billion, stated by the US Department of Commerce. The increase in the percentage of Indian students enrolled in the US in 2015-16 exceeded China, as there was 8.1% of the increase noticed in the growth of the number of Chinese students, enrolled in the US, but the growth of Indian students rose by 24.9% in the current years compared to the previous year where it was just 6.1%.

[Read More: Life as a Student in United States]

Earlier, South Korea was in the third position for international students sourced, but this year Saudi Arabia replaced it even though there was a decline of 2.2% in the number of students coming from Saudi. This implies that there is a further decline in the number of students coming from South Korea to the US, that is a decrease of 4.2%.The decline was also noticed in the number of students coming from Brazil and there was a huge drop of 18.2%. The reason behind this drop of Brazilian students is the deferral of Brazilian Government's large-scale Science Without Borders overseas scholarship program. A drop could be easily noticed in the number of international students world-wide, but there is a significant rise in the number of students enrolled from India in 2015-16.

One more fact raised by the Open Doors is the gender gap that has arisen in the recent years among overseas students, which has further increased in the past two years, one of the reasons behind the drop is that most of the women don't tend to study STEM courses. The top education destination in the US  is California as it hosted approximately 1.5 Lakh overseas students followed by New York. There is no doubt that India has become a favored source of origin for international students in the US, due to the quality and quantity of the students and the huge amount of funds that they are investing in the country.

If you are eager to get enrolled in an international university in the US, then you can confidently rely on Global Tree, who are experts in the field and can assist you in achieving your goals. Contact us for more details.