Hundreds of students from Gujarat have quashed their plan to study in the US. This trend has cut the country’s overall outbound student traffic by 16%, as Gujarat’s contribution to the number of Indian students going abroad is the highest. This was revealed by a recent study carried out by the US Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).
Several factors, principal among which is recessionary pressure, have persuaded Gujarat’s students to stay in India. The disenchantment among students here is so great that some have even declined offers from prestigious American universities.
The Indian students’ deferral of their US plans is matched by a similar decline in admission offers to Indian students from American universities.
The CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey was conducted in October this year. Its purpose was to collect data on the number of students enrolling in graduate schools from key countries, including India, China, South Korea, Turkey and some nations of the Middle East.
The survey results showed that the number of international students in US universities in 2009 was the same as in 2008. This is the first time since 2004 that the number of foreign student in US universities has not increased over the previous year.
The number of students from India enrolling in US universities this year has declined even more steeply. As mentioned above, it fell by 16% in 2009. In 2008, too, fewer students from India had taken admission in US graduate schools than in 2007, though the number of Indian students going to the US for studies in 2007 had increased by 8%.
The downturn in the global economy is undoubtedly the main reason why many students from Gujarat (as from elsewhere in the country) are deciding against going abroad for studies. There are, however, other reasons as well.
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